Welsh Reaction: The self-flagellation continued. As if Wales had not battered themselves a little senseless over the past two weeks, yesterday's offering at Lansdowne Road confirmed their propensity for self-abuse has not diminished.

As ever after trauma heaped on trauma, the team held firm and metaphorically gave each other a large communal hug. Loyalty to one another seems to be high on the Welsh agenda. It has to be. They have little else at the moment.

"We've a brilliant, brilliant squad," said captain Michael Owen. "The attitude these past two weeks has been exceptional from the lads. Yes, the game was disappointing. But in the first 20 minutes we did show that we were capable of causing problems. We just didn't manage to sustain it."

Coach Scott Johnson, in his first match since stepping in after Grand Slam-winning coach Mike Ruddock departed, tried his best to be philosophical about the last 60 minutes of poor rugby.

A flourish in the first quarter, while Stephen Jones was still on the pitch, could not erase the hour or so when Welsh ineptitude threatened to throw the Lansdowne Road crowd into an affronted stupor. Surely the leprous Welsh politics of the last 10 days played its hand.

"Nah, from day one that has had no bearing," said the Australian. "No bearing on me and no bearing on the team. All we did was focus on our game and that will be our intention from now on. It's out of our hands and nor will it ever come into our hands and nor will it be an excuse. While I'm at the helm there will be no excuse."

Not even Jones' hobbling exit, which clearly marked the line in the Welsh game where deterioration accelerated, was raised as a defence. Johnson also held his hand up as a coach who should have had more input into developing Welsh skills and held part of the responsibility for that being a glaring deficit in the Welsh game. But the collective unacceptable performance was very much the deal on the table. Everyone was to blame.

"They didn't let me down," said Johnson of his players. "But it's not about them. It's about us. It is a highly skilful game and demands high skills and I thought the first 20 minutes we showed great endeavour and good completion skills. But we've got to be honest. Skills are a coaching aspect and in that respect I've got to look at myself. We are all together in this.

"The best laid plans of mice and men . . . Steve (Jones) was about the last player I would have wanted to replace after 20 minutes. I think up to then we showed good play. I think after that it became a bit distorted. I prefer teams to go out throwing punches. What I mean is having a go at things, chancing your arm. But if you can't complete it means pressure on yourself and when Ireland got that good early try, kicked a penalty, then we were under pressure to play and if you are under pressure, then okay, but you have to complete it well and we didn't do that."

As scripts go, Jones' departure and Gavin Henson's arrival to the scene of what was about to become something of a Welsh rugby crime, was how a dramatist would have written it.

The bronzed one came on, sliced a few kicks, was generally inaccurate, a little slow and was the player everyone watched. Wolf whistles from the crowd accompanied every flashing move he made. The gel-styled slick black hair remained exquisite, his game did not.

"Look," said Johnson. "The bench is used for versatility. You want versatility. You need coverage in a couple of positions. We didn't have the cover we normally have. Gavin fits that bill.

"The intention was never to play Gavin for as long as we did today. The intention was to take him into the second half and let him play footy. Would we have done it any differently in hindsight? Nah, he covers 12 as well. It wasn't pleasant with the injury (to Jones) but I accept that is a part of the game."

And so Wales arrive home to the principality chanting that nothing is wrong but on the end of an Irish hiding and not really much to convince a critical public that a mend is in sight. "We've got to be right to play our game," said Johnson. "We need to play it in a way that understands our needs and what we do good."

The needs are now plentiful, the good has yet to arrive.