It was a replica of events at Twickenham last month. On that occasion England pounced twice after lock Alun-Wyn Jones received a yellow card.

“We are very disappointed,” said coach Gatland, after Wales slumped to their third 6 Nations defeat in four starts this term.

“Ireland were very good and very clinical. We had more territory and possession, but turnovers were costly for us.

“The yellow card was very costly in the game. We haven’t learned our lesson from England, and from a coaching point of view that is very frustrating.

“We did create some chances and opportunities, but we tried to force things a little too much.

“We need to keep our patience and work on accuracy.”

Wales had a series of attacking scrums early in the second-half at 16-6 adrift, but they failed to capitalise and Ireland cleared the danger, then broke upfield and killed the game off.

“If we had scored from that last scrum... but we need to concentrate 100%. That was a big moment in the game,” Gatland added.

“We came up against a very good Irish defensive display. They are pretty experienced in what they do.

“We have struggled a little with regard to our strength in defence – we are missing some key players at the moment – but it is something we are always working on.”

Wales wind up their Six Nations campaign at home to Italy next Saturday, and it is possible that scrum-half Mike Phillips, skipper Ryan Jones and prop Gethin Jenkins could all be back in the mix after injuries.

As for Wales leaking three more tries – they have now conceded 10 in four games - there were no excuses from defence coach Shaun Edwards.

“I am disappointed we went down to 14 men and conceded two tries, but the Irish defence was better than ours today,” he said.

Skipper Martyn Williams added: “We had plenty of ball, but we are just not clinical enough at key points in the game. We had a crazy five minutes when they scored two tries against us.”