Ireland's coach, Joe Schmidt, seemed to think that the referee was allowing more to happen at the breakdown than last week and Murphy agreed.

He said: "I think so, I'm not making excuses now, but they (Wales) were clinging quite deep and not letting go of players and the referee wasn't really on top of that.

"That's the way he refereed it today and we've got to adapt to it quicker."

Murphy gave a frank assessment of Ireland's problems at the breakdown.

He said: "I just didn't get there quick enough at some points and then at other times they were blocking through the line and we got outsmarted at times.

"We have just got to box more clever next time."

He also admitted that he was frustrated that he didn't do better in today's game.

He said: "Pretty disappointed, I was personally disappointed with how the breakdown went, at 7 I thought I should have done a better job.

"You never want to lose a game, especially when we wanted to do it for Paulie and for Alan, so it was a disappointing day."

The Ireland forward revealed that the team didn't make a big deal of the fact that it was Paul O'Connell's final home game for Ireland.

He said: "We just knew ourselves that we wanted to do it for Paulie, it was his last home game, it's not like it's going to be his last game.

"Obviously, it's a big deal for him and his family, but he's got plenty of games left in him in the green jersey."