Joe Schmidt admits that Wales beat Ireland at their own game

Joe Schmidt admitted that Wales beat Ireland at their own game, dominating the tactical kicking battle that has been such a strength for his side.

Ireland could not make it a record 11 wins out of 11 as they were beaten 23-16 at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

The win blew the Six Nations title race wide open with Ireland, Wales and England all on six points heading into the final weekend. Ireland will travel to Scotland and a dejected Schmidt insisted "it's not back to the drawing board" for his side.

"The strategy was the same as it has been for the last few weeks: and it's not back to the drawing board for us," said Schmidt.

"I think if you start to throw the baby out with the bathwater, it's pretty hard to start all over again.

"Yeah; it's funny there wasn't really that much tempo earlier in the game," said Schmidt when asked if Wales adopted Ireland-style tactics in victory.

"The tempo came into the game in the second quarter. They won the first four balls in the air, so they did really well. And I don't think you can take anything away from Leigh Halfpenny and Jamie Roberts in the way that they did that."

Former Leinster boss Schmidt did, however, admit "concern" with Ireland's failure to convert 64 per cent possession and 66 per cent territory into any tries.

"I think there is concern: we went out with a plan in the second half expecting to accumulate points if we played and won a number of penalties," added Schmidt.

"But the penalties didn't come in the second half, so we didn't achieve anything with that strategy, apart from some really good play."