No happy return for Gatland as Ireland blow Wales away

There was no fairytale return for Wales head coach Warren Gatland as his side were blown away by Ireland's blistering start which saw them build a 27-3 lead after only 26 minutes.

A huge defeat for Wales looked likely but they regrouped so a final score of 34-10 was within the bounds of respectability but it was still a record home defeat in the Six Nations under Gatland's watch.

Gatland said: “The concession of early pentalties was costly and in next to no time we were 14 points down and under the pump. We then had a couple of chances but they scored an intercept try so there was a possible 14-point turnaround.”

The game was over as a contest at half-time but it was a different story after hat as Wales had much the better of territory and possession but just couldn't capitalise.

Gatland accepted this: “The second half saw a huge improvement as we came out with a greater line-speed and put them under much more pressure. We probably had the same number of entries into the opposition 22 as they did but they showed why they are the number one team in the world by taking their chances.

“When we got it back to 27-10, I thought if we could get another try, we could have made the last 20 minutes interesting but we made too many errors by forcing passes and lost a couple of line-outs.”

Welsh full-back Liam Williams was the only player sin-binned in the match for a high tackle on Johnny Sexton but Irish players Andrew Porter and Iain Henderson both infringed and on another day could have collected yellow cards.

Gatland said: “There were no massive incidents in the game and I'm comfortable with the refereeing but there were marginal calls for cards for two of their players.”

Welsh captain Ken Owens said: “It was tough out there but they didn't do anything that really surprised us. We stuck at it and delivered a full 80-minute effort but we lacked accuracy, myself included.”

Next up for Wales is a trip to Scotland and they will be buoyed by the fact that they have won at Murrayfield on six of their last seven visits.

An improved second-half from the home side saw replacements, Tommy Reffell and Dafydd Jenkins, put forward a case for inclusion in the starting line-up.

Gatland said: “Alun Wyn Jones is definitely out for next week as he failed an HIA and Tomos Francis departed at halftime with a tight calf, which will be scanned tomorrow. We will obviously look at which players have taken their opportunities and overall I'm not too disappointed at what I saw today. We just need to be more clinical and cut down on the penalty count as it was 9-2 against us at half-time.”

It was Ireland's first win in Cardiff since 2013 and their head coach Andy Farrell was naturally pleased: “We are delighted to get off to a winning start as history shows this is a tough place to come.

“We got what we deserved as our preparation was top drawer but I would have bitten someone's hand off if I'd been offered a bonus-point victory beforehand. We showed great composure in the first half and were very clinical in taking our chances.

“They played expansively and offered us some big threats but our scramble defence was good. We had a poor third quarter as we kept giving them access through our own faults but we showed resilience to keep them out.”

Irish captain Johnny Sexton was hopeful of a good campaign. He said: “It's only a start but a good one so we are still in the hunt for honours. All four of our games will be tough, starting with a massive game against France next week but we'll have to sort out our third-quarter performance.”