Jonathan Davies: Irish will be grateful for Grand Slam lessons

Wales took our breath away with a thrilling finish and left plenty of hope for their fans in this narrowest of defeats that allows Ireland to go on to a Grand Slam finale next weekend.

You have to give the Irish a chance against England at Lansdowne Road, but they will have to do much better in the set pieces than they did yesterday. If they do, they will be grateful to the Welsh forwards for spotlighting the deficiencies they have to work on during the week.

Losing isn't much use under any circumstances, but perhaps it is a measure of how far Wales have sunk that we should be able to take so much satisfaction from their performance yesterday.

Coupled with the news that the clubs have agreed at last to re-organise themselves next season, this is the most encouraging weekend Welsh rugby has had for a long time. The Welsh Rugby Union did not get the four regional teams they wanted, but I have been advocating a top level of five teams and I am delighted that the clubs have decided to go down that route.

Llanelli and Cardiff will stand alone, while Swansea will merge with Neath, Bridgend with Pontypridd and Newport with Ebbw Vale. I reckon that will produce a big improvement in the standard and intensity of play and we will learn to be grateful to the clubs who agreed to merge their identities for the benefit of Wales.

One of the impressive things about Wales yesterday was the attitude that led to their best performance in the Six Nations so far. It is remarkable that their two best performances have been against England and Ireland, which they were expected to lose, and the two worst performances have been against Italy and Scotland, which they were expected to win. Something wrong there, surely.

I was very impressed with the Welsh forwards. They smashed the Irish scrum late in the game, but they were always on top. Prop Gethin Jenkins played very well, as did Martyn Williams and Colin Charvis in a back-row that at last looks balanced.

Stephen Jones deserved his man-of-the-match award, but again it was noticeable how much better the back line worked when Iestyn Harris came on as a replacement. He brings variety and depth to the job, creates problems and puts players into holes.

He made three clinical passes in the build-up to Gareth Thomas's try and I do hope he gets a chance of a full game at No 12 in the final match against France. He can bring the pace of the Welsh back-three into play like no one else. France in Paris will be as tough as ever, but if they can take this spirit into action they can build on yesterday's showing.

Ireland won't be comforted by the way they lost their composure. Their pack came off second best and they are not used to that. They were nervous when it was tight, and maybe this was a game they needed to get out of their system. They are a better team this year because of belief, and although they lost it for periods yesterday it will return. Geordan Murphy had a good game, as did try-scorer Keith Gleeson, and at least they managed to keep cooler in those fervent last minutes.

After Jones's drop goal had put them in the lead, Wales should have realised that all they had to do was collect the kick-off and welly it into touch. But they let the Irish forwards get there first and pat it back for Ronan O'Gara. Wales still had another chance for a drop, but it was inevitable Jones's attempt would be blocked. They should have had an optional kicker ready, but we won't quibble.