AS the Wales team coach headed back to their picturesque hotel base on the outskirts of Dublin on Saturday evening, every player was well aware of what was lying in wait for them over the coming days.

Moments earlier the same players had conducted a round of post-match interviews where it was pretty clear a verbal lashing from the Wales coaching team was still ringing in their ears.

So have there been some harsh words, I asked scrum-half Richie Rees.

"Yes, you could say that," said the Blues No. 9, after a brief pause.

So what was said?

"Basically, Shaun (Edwards) told us he was looking forward to training this week, in so many words."

Rees didn't need to recount the other words because you suspect they would not have been suitable for the columns of a family newspaper.

Intensity

When Edwards first arrived on the Wales scene alongside his Wasps buddy Warren Gatland in 2008, in almost every interview the players spoke about the intensity of training, how reputations counted for nothing and how they were kept on edge by Mr Angry prowling the paddock.

The end result was a Grand Slam campaign bristling with steely physicality, decorated by the brilliance of Shane Williams but based on the foundations of a watertight defence.

That year, Wales leaked just two tries; ahead of Saturday's low-key finale against Italy in Cardiff, they are already in double figures in the debit column.

At Croke Park, against an Irish side who have developed their own Edwards-esque defensive grit under another former rugby league guru, Australian Les Kiss, the contrast was stark.

Ireland are where Wales were two years ago, comfortable with anything the opposition can throw at them before countering with a rapier-like response.

For most of Saturday's defeat, Wales looked like they were trying to break down a steel-plated door with a plastic hammer.

Invention

For all their faults in this championship, before they headed to Dublin Gatland's men couldn't be accused of lacking invention.

But in the Irish capital, they ran out of ideas all too quickly. They lacked shape, lost pattern and were swallowed up by a dogged Irish side that never really had to stretch themselves on the way to the second leg of what they hope will be a fifth Triple Crown in seven years.

It all added up to miserable afternoon for the Welsh fans, who were noticeably far, far fewer in number than the normal hordes who head across the Irish Sea.

The economic climate and six euros a pint doesn't help matters, but you also sense Gatland's men haven't captured the imagination of the Welsh public this season.

Disappointingly, there is also an increasingly unpleasant undercurrent seeping into this fixture.

This year, it started with the 'menopausal warthog' column in the Irish Independent, but others too jumped on the anti-Welsh bandwagon, with one writer speaking about 'insufferable Welsh fans' going back to the halcyon years of the seventies.

Gatland, of course, has to shoulder some of the blame following his ill-advised 'we dislike the Irish more than anyone else' statement last year, even if he did offer a belated apology at his eve-of-match press conference in Dublin.

At least Irish great Tony Ward, the mercurial little fly-half of the eighties, went some way to restoring Celtic relations with his piece in the match-day programme.

"Let me straight away declare my hand. I worship Welsh rugby and everything it stands for," wrote Ward.

"Rugby is in the Welsh DNA. It is part of what they are. The southern hemisphere's big three, England and France may dominate world rankings and indeed all six Rugby World Cups to date, but the Welsh epitomise best for me what so much of this great game is all about.

"I love their passion, their interest, their knowledge, their heartfelt respect.

"I guess that is why Warren Gatland's pitifully poor attempt at pre-match psychology cut so deep.

"For those of us so privileged to share time and space on Four Nations tours it is a comment so far wide of the mark to be lamentable."

The thing is, Wales have failed to live up to their reputation over the last 12 months.

Gatland wasn't brought in for scraps to avoid the wooden spoon, and whatever the result against the Azzurri in Cardiff, it won't mask what has been a bitterly disappointing championship and international season as a whole.

Those viewing their pint of the black stuff half full in Temple Bar on Saturday night will point to the rapid development of Bradley Davies, while there was also the sight of Jamie Roberts back as a midfield tour de force, outshining centurion Brian O'Driscoll on his big day.

Question marks

But the question marks remain. Are Wales getting the best out of James Hook? Will Martyn Williams and Stephen Jones remain until the World Cup? What to do with the Welsh line-out?

Wales are no strangers to Dublin disasters and have often re-emerged stronger as a result.

For the fans, a weekend in the Ireland's party capital is rarely a sobering experience.

For Gatland, Edwards and Co, it was a weekend they will want to forget in a hurry.