St David's day brings Cardiff to its knees

Ireland buried the nasty memory of their poor performance against Scotland and they buried Wales with it. The sad part was the large part the Welsh played in helping to dig the hole.

They missed more tackles than you could count, they lost line-out after line-out, surrendered vital turnovers and committed an embarrassing number of unforced errors.

This was the worst Welsh performance I've seen for a long time. But you must credit Ireland for the pressure they applied. This win will send them into next Saturday's game against England with sky-high confidence.

England will be encouraged by a first half when Ireland should have created a lot more danger for the Welsh line. They came close to being awarded a try by the video referee but they should have done better with the opportunities they had.

The Welsh defence were able to cope very comfortably and, having reached the interval only 15–3 down, I felt that Wales were still in the match with a sound chance.

They started the second half with an encouraging surge and when Stephen Jones reduced the arrears to 15–6 they looked to be capable of turning the tables. Certainly the Welsh front five deserved better for their efforts. They performed well in the scrum and won enough ball for the Welsh backs to fulfil the promise they showed on occasion.

But it was all ruined by untidy and thoughtless play. For a start, Wales were too keen to kick away possession when they were in good positions.

And when they did penetrate – Kevin Morgan twice made exciting breaks – they chose the wrong option or suffered from a lack of support.

They were unlucky when a few grubber kicks caught defensive feet and set up Irish attacks. Ireland's second try came after an attempted grubber by Allan Bateman was kicked ahead by Brian O'Driscoll. But you should make sure that you kick grubbers into space.

That sort of thing was typical of the way Wales ruined every chance they had. Rob Howley had one of his quieter days and the centre partnership of Bateman and Leigh Davies never got going.

Morgan and Shane Williams showed in flashes what was necessary but when you continually give away possession and position you have no hope, especially when you are up against a player of David Humphreys' class.

He was able to control everything, putting the ball behind the Welsh backs time and time again and taking every penalty chance that came his way. Wales also gave too much space to the Irish back row when they should have been putting them under pressure. These were all basic shortcomings and you just can't win games under these handicaps.

What Wales desperately need are ball-carriers and they must be hoping that Scott Quinnell and Gareth Thomas are back for the next match. When it came to ball-carrying, another player they really missed was sitting up in the BBC commentary box. Scott Gibbs seems happy in his retirement but I would do my utmost to drag him out of it and put him back into international action.

With home advantage Ireland can give the English some trouble in Dublin. The English will still be the bookies' favourites but I hope the Irish remember that it is their turn to stop them winning the Grand Slam.