Rory Best Ireland hooker

The whole camp was disappointed with the result and the performance against Wales.

We felt we started brightly and got into the game well but we struggled to get the ball back off them in the second half and unfortunately if you don't have the ball, you don't score.

We talked about the fact it would be our last time at Croke Park for eight months and wanted to end on a good note

We had some chances but we weren't as clinical as we should have been and at this level you have to make your chances and possession count.

It could perhaps have been a turning point if Shane Horgan had managed to get across for a try in the first half, you can't say for sure, but that's what you're dealing with, just a couple of inches.

We had talked during the week about the fact that it would be our last game at Croke Park for eight months and wanted to end on a good note.

It will only be when we examine the match fully that we will realise what we left behind but post-match the general feeling was that we did not perform as we would have liked.

It was particularly disappointing not to capitalise when they were down to 14 men and on the second occasion we couldn't get the ball off them to build any momentum.

I was reasonably happy with my contribution at the scrums and line-out and I suppose that is what I am judged on but - along with the rest of the boys - I still feel I could have contributed more.

My Ulster team-mates Andrew Trimble and Tommy Bowe were particularly disappointed that they didn't get more of the ball. Tommy told me he was trying to get the ball but sometimes it doesn't come your way and that's just the way it is.

Rory Best tries to support Denis Leamy as he is tackled

We had enough chances that it shouldn't have mattered if Wales scored but the fact that they scored the only try of the game probably meant they deserved to win the game and in the end that was the difference.

Eddie O'Sullivan told us after the game that sometimes you have to accept it when you are beaten, that it was a very close game and it is like that at this level.

Sometimes you win the tight games, sometimes you lose them.

I was surprised to find myself at the centre of so much controversy before the game over what I had supposedly said in the run-up to the match.

I was totally misquoted and the one thing I am not is controversial.

All I had to say was that, like any game, we would look at them and try to test their line-out but the Welsh team used it and I suppose teams will use whatever they can to their advantage.

I certainly don't like to set myself up for any controversy.

Ireland teams have only lost one or two games in the Six Nations over the last six or seven seasons so we do not want to be the team that brings that run to an end Rory Best

It is hard to comment on the business surrounding Danny Cipriani last week as we don't know the full details but it is a decision Brian Ashton took and he's the boss so it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

Regarding our squad, we don't have any curfews and it is each player's responsibility to look after himself and prepare fully for the game.

Prior to a Saturday game we have Wednesdays off, Thursday night is cinema night and apart from that, we maybe spend some time on our computers.

Looking ahead to our final game at Twickenham, both we and England will want to end fairly disappointing campaigns on a high with a good performance and a good result.

We will be without Brian O'Driscoll but will focus our thoughts on how we can beat England and while finishing with two defeats is bad, to finish with three losses would be a disaster.

Ireland teams have only lost one or two games in the Six Nations over the last six or seven seasons so we do not want to be labelled as the team that brings that good run to an end.

Wales will go into their big match with France full of confidence and will be difficult to beat in Cardiff with the Grand Slam at stake.

Rory Best was talking to BBC Sport NI's Richard Petrie