Ireland set for dip in world rugby rankings after Welsh loss

Ireland look set to drop to third in the world when the latest world rugby rankings are updated on Monday.

Joe Schmidt's side climbed to second in the world last year after winning the Six Nations and a summer tour of Australia but have now fallen back to third after recent losses to England and Wales. The latter, who sealed their first Grand Slam since 2012 with a 25-7 win over Ireland on Saturday, look set to leapfrog Ireland into second place with world champions New Zealand still holding on to the number one spot. Meanwhile Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt said that his side's discipline let them down on Saturday and he also added that Ireland did not respond well to pressure at the Principality Stadium.

“I’m disappointed,” Schmidt said afterwards. “Our discipline doesn’t usually let us down, it allowed them to get a distance ahead of us, they scored after a couple of minutes and you’re always under a little bit of pressure and we didn’t respond overly well to that pressure giving up those penalties. “We weren’t as good as Wales today. They were hugely emotionally up for it and I know because we were in the same position last year going to Twickenham and you get another 5%. It’s hard to match but you’ve got to be able to match it, there will be occasions like that in the future.”