Gatland regrets substitutions

No one will have tossed and turned in their beds in the team hotel in Wilderness last night more than Warren Gatland. For when it comes to apportioning blame, the New Zelander last night displayed a readiness to hold his hands up and say: mea culpa.

It was a game, said Gatland, which "we probably blew".

"I was happy with a lot of aspects to it, though. A little bit of inexperience in a few areas, but that's what we're here for. I'm still happy we were ahead with a chance to win it with nearly 10 minutes to go."

When asked for a turning point Gatland pointed not to a decision made on the pitch but on the bench. "I've probably got to put my hand up and say I made a bad call bringing Peter Clohessy off. He was doing well for us. Even perhaps Trevor Brennan, who was also a mistake by me and I'm prepared to admit that."

Gatland had hoped for "fresh legs and another impact. Sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn't".

Sometimes we forget that the 34-year-old Gatland is also cutting his teeth at international coaching and, innovative user of replacements that he is, can sometimes get it wrong, too. In private, Gatland and manager Donal Lenihan must now be concerned about John Hayes's suspect scrummaging technique. It will clearly receive the fiercest of examinations on this tour and is understandably a long way short of Clohessy's technique.

As for Brennan, Gatland effectively concurred with his deserving man-of-the-match award.

"I thought Trevor Brennan, for his amount of work, was absolutely outstanding. I think he would be the first to admit he learned a huge amount today. There would have been question marks about his discipline but for 60 odd minutes he worked hard, tackled well and his discipline was excellent, so I was absolutely delighted."

"It was the most enjoyable game of rugby I've played, for a half anyway," said Brennan. "We started well and maybe ran out of gas a bit, but I felt I did well myself personally. I knew I had to take my chance and I know what it's all about now."

Gatland also singled out Anthony Foley, whose achilles injury is not deemed serious. It was a funny day for the young Shannon skipper, scoring a try on the day he led his country. "It was the best. A super feeling. But at the end of the day, I'd rather we'd won. That would have topped it. That's only the third game I've lost in six or seven months. I'm not used to it, and I hate it."

Both Lenihan and Gatland cited "a lack of experience" as the main reason for Ireland letting the game slip. "I thought our scrum was under a bit of pressure towards the end," said Gatland, "but most of the time I was pretty happy with it."

He also admitted that this side's four-up defence needs some fine-tuning. "We're still learning how to do it with some players, so that's an issue that I wasn't worried about. We'll have a look at the video, have a talk about it, and see where we went wrong. It's not something that happens overnight. It takes a few games."

The South West coach Heyneke Meyer, while thrilled with his side's historic first win over a major touring side, seemed genuinely impressed with the tourists. "It was a very physical game. I think they've got a good pack of forwards. I really think they're a good side and will get used to playing together. The Western Province game is a crunch game for them. If they lose that game then it's going to be a long tour for them. But with their other team, I give them a good chance against Western Province."