DAFYDD Jenkins believes Wales are learning from the hard times and can take heart from pushing the Irish so far and hard at Principality Stadium, reports the WRU’s Graeme Gillespie.

The former Wales skipper put in a stellar 80 minute performance in the 27-18 defeat and is looking forward to the next Six Nations assignment against Scotland at Murrayfield.

“I’m not playing the game to lose, I promise you that, and if we didn’t believe in this group of players, there’d be no point going out on the pitch,” said Jenkins.

“It is not just going to fall into place for us, we are going to have to work extremely hard. The Six Nations is very competitive.

“But Ireland are one of the top teams in the world and if we’re competing with them we’re in a good place. The learnings we’ve taken individually and as a team are going to be huge for us.

“We’re obviously disappointed with the result, but there were some real positives...

“The boys have picked up our new shape, and that’s something we can really look forward to getting better at moving forward.”

With more time to prepare for the trip to Edinburgh under stand-in coach Matt Sherratt, everyone believes the team can only improve.

“Welsh rugby owes a huge amount to Warren Gatland. It was awesome for me to watch Wales being successful growing up, as well as giving me the opportunity to get my first cap – I’ll be forever grateful for that,” said Jenkins.

“But Matt’s come in, and he’s an awesome attack coach in terms of detail. He gives you real clarity as a group, and it’s also been good bringing in TRT (Rhys Thomas), who’s a great coach and a great guy as well.

“There’s confidence in terms of the way we played and just listening to how the crowd were, I think they all saw that as well.”