Wales will now be reflecting on the fact that they can only now make up the Six Nations numbers after losing to Ireland.
Three home wins and two away defeats is now the best return they can hope for, which is a somewhat deflating prospect given all the hope that swirled around their visit to Dublin.
As ever there were individual winners and losers to emerge from the match.
Here are some to be going on with...
Winners
Joe Schmidt
The Ireland boss shook hands and chatted with Warren Gatland on the Aviva Stadium pitch before the match, but while there is professional respect between the two Kiwis there is little warmth.
Wales and Ireland have been involved in some spiky confrontations during their tenures and both men are renowned as being in the upper echelon of coaches in the world game.
Fierce rivalry is the inevitable result of that and Schmidt was the one smiling in Dublin.
Ireland’s win was no great tactical triumph, but the level of performance Schmidt eked out of his charges put whatever Gatland tried to engineer in the shade.
Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray
We knew all about the quality of this Lions half-back partnership without needing this encounter to add to the portfolio.
All the same they rubber-stamped their Rolls-Royce quality by controlling the match.
Sexton’s kicking radar let him down but his vision and the range and quality of his passing were different class.
As for Murray, he showed just what a good navigator of play and decision maker he is.
Yes they were playing behind a dominant pack, but all the same they got the job done in ruthless fashion.
Steff Evans
The Scarlets wing was on the losing side but this was another game that saw him underline his Test match credentials.
He is growing as an international player with every game and his fine try towards the end of this encounter was reward for an industrious performance.
Evans looked for work all afternoon and though he made a few errors he was a constant threat.
On this evidence you would think he will keep his place for the Italy game.
Gareth Anscombe
There was a lot of speculation over whether he would start at fly-half before the game. With hindsight he didn’t come out of the selection mix badly.
Had he started he would have been behind a beaten pack all afternoon and under a lot of pressure. What odds it would have ended unhappily with everyone concluding the sooner Biggar came back the better?
As it was Biggar was preferred but, having been out injured for more than a month, he didn’t cope well.
Yes Anscombe’s late risky pass when he came off the bench was intercepted by Jacob Stockdale, but Wales had to go for it and you can’t really hold that against the Kiwi.
Anscombe may well get the nod against the Azzurri. Then again, Gatland may assume Biggar will be better for his run-out.
Wales beaten in Ireland
Losers
Shaun Edwards
A couple of days before this match Edwards somehow got into the situation where he was detailing his career achievements at a formal press conference. It was if he was showcasing his cv for future employers.
There’s no questioning his track record, but what’s that famous saying in sport about only being as good as your last game?
If it rings true then the Welsh defence conceded five tries in Dublin and Edwards’ old rugby league pal Andy Farrell decisively got the better of him.
Ross Moriarty
The No.8 is a real rugby warrior but he hasn’t been able to do himself justice so far in this tournament.
He came into it after a lay-off because of a back injury and three successive Six Nations matches against Scotland, England and Ireland is hardly the most accommodating way to return.
It all seemed to catch up with Moriarty against the Irish. He didn’t look 100% and he had very little impact on proceedings.
Wales’ back row injuries forced him back earlier in the tournament and may yet mean he has to plough on when it looks as though physically he could benefit from a breather.
The Wales front row
With Ireland tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong out injured the onus was on Wales to find an advantage but it never materialised.
Like too many of their team mates, Rob Evans, Ken Owens and Samson Lee spent the bulk of the afternoon tackling.
In the scrum Irish rookie Andrew Porter more than held his own against Rob Evans while hooker Owens, usually a bundle of fire and fury, was strangely subdued.
The Welsh pack as a whole lost the collisions and Gatland really needed more from this trio.
Dan Biggar
He came back after a month out injured and save for a few fine takes in mid-air didn’t influence proceedings in the way he or Gatland would have wanted.
The coach said Biggar was chosen for his experience. Fair enough, but if experience denotes maturity then Biggar’s penchant for appealing to referees undermines Gatland’s pre-match argument.
It’s a habit that truly grates and in Dublin it was a habit that led to an Irish try when Biggar lost focus claiming he was tackled in mid-air at the start of the first-half. Moments later Ireland scored for a third time.
Quite apart from the verbals Biggar got little joy trying to spark Wales’ back-line, even if his forwards were being taken to the cleaners.
