Ronan O'Gara/Six Nations Diary: There's no getting away from it: that's a huge, huge disappointment, much more so than the defeat to France.

We were all looking forward to it so much because it was such a great occasion, and so from a personal point of view to not even complete the game is particularly frustrating.

No player likes being taken off and I'm no different. I thought I was doing fine, to be honest, and was striking the ball well, and I would like to have been playing in the last 20 minutes when we started to get more go-forward ball. But the management have to make these calls.

It was a brilliant atmosphere, in a great stadium, and it was the perfect pitch to play on.

You've got to love playing in conditions like that. That's what makes it all the more disappointing to be called ashore.

I thought the start to the game was good. Axel (Anthony Foley) took the kick-off on the charge and popped it up to Simon Easterby, and we carried the ball well down the left through Johnny O'Connor and Drico (Brian O'Driscoll). I put a nice kick into their 22, we got a bit of pressure on them, were awarded a penalty and I managed to get us the first three points.

They missed the chance to get some impetus when they missed their first penalty. But then Gavin Henson kicked a drop goal before they scored that charge-down try.

I have to be very fed up with that (charge down) because it was such a costly seven points, although I'd like to see where Gethin Jenkins came from. I don't feel that I was slow on the ball. It's particularly upsetting because I got pinged in the second half for a rush defence but the bottom line is that it was a big seven points to concede.

Henson's penalty to put them 13-3 ahead was a great kick but I felt they still hadn't done much and then we nearly scored off a nice move out in the backs.

We got fast ball to Denis Hickie coming into the line. It was the first real crack we had off them and we worked it well but unfortunately we lost control of the scrum that followed and then Dwayne Peel took the play down to half-way, and it seemed that any time we got into their 22 we gave away penalties.

After Stephen Jones kicked another penalty for them I managed to land a long-range penalty before half-time.

When we went in at half-time we felt that we didn't have control of the ball much and that possession was scarce, but the charge-down try was basically the difference between the teams.

The game had been played at a fast pace, and fellas were sucking diesel when we came into the dressingroom. But there was no sense of panic.

The forwards were a bit annoyed that they didn't have more input, but we just felt that we had to try to play through the phases. They had basically been profiting from our mistakes.

I got penalised for an alleged offside at the start of the second half, which was very annoying.

We had talked about our defence beforehand, and using more of an outside-in defence, so to get penalised in the middle was a bit hard to take.

Jones isn't that comfortable with it when you come up from the outside in, because they like to do their loop plays in space.

I had a long-range penalty soon after that but it was wide by about two feet. I struck it pretty well but I must have been out by a fraction in some part of my technique, so I have to hold my hands up for that.

After about 50 minutes I was called ashore and it's hard to see the action in the stands from pitch level, but the forward replacements appeared to have a big impact.

After falling 29-6 behind we showed some guts in the last quarter. The last two performances probably haven't done our Lions hopes much good, but I thought Johnny O'Connor had a fine game, and took the ball on well.

You'd have to be happy for the Welsh people. You can see how much rugby means to them. I was here at the Millennium Stadium for a Heineken European Cup final once and the atmosphere was incredible that day too. I guess Welsh people are similar to Munster fans, they have that much passion for the game.

We all have to pick ourselves up for our provinces now and we go back into camp with Munster tomorrow. There's no point in sulking and it'll be good to be back with the Munster lads. The game against Biarritz in San Sebastian could be another great occasion, and we still have some unfinished business with Munster this season.

(in an interview with Gerry Thornley)