WALES must rediscover the passion they showed against England if they are to prevent Ireland from driving them nearer to a Six Nations whitewash, says experinced wing Gareth Thomas.

"The mood is obviously down and we're obviously on a losing streak," admitted Thomas after the Scotland setback on Saturday.

"But the boys still have belief in one another, we don't need to look at anyone and be down.

"We've got to be upbeat and there are two more games to go. Ireland are a great team with some great individuals and it's a case of going back to like we were against England.

"We've got to prove we're a good international team with good players, and on our home patch anything is possible.

"It's pointless going into the Ireland game thinking what they've done.

"I don't think the players are any less passionate but Scotland outmuscled us in the first 20 minutes. We've got to give credit to them for coming out on top."

Back row forward Dafydd Jones, one of the successes of the Welsh team this season, admitted: "Ireland will be a huge challenge.

"But we know it's in us, winning is a habit and at the moment we're struggling. I don't think we're far off at all, it just didn't happen in the first 20 minutes, but it's frustrating rather than disappointing.

"The boys showed courage and we could have won it. We're not winning, but it's a fine line. We came here full of confidence, but the first 20 minutes killed us."

Hooker Gareth Williams, involved in those early decisive stages as his line-out throwing in failed to find his target, criticised Argentinian referee Pablo Deluca.

"He stopped us going back over the 15 yards, but when we swopped referees he let us go and in the second half we started to dominate the line-out.

"Scotland did take a lot of our options away, but we can't just blame the referee.

"A couple of things didn't go our way and we just didn't have the bounce of the ball. Other than the loss it was a brilliant day for me."

Wales captain Martyn Williams, the third leader in as many matches, drew comparisons between the first and last 20 minutes.

"It was a pretty frustrating first 20 minutes, it would have been ideal if we could have got off on the front foot," he said.

"But though we're disappointed with the loss we'll take a lot out of the last 20 minutes. "We were 17-3 down in the first 20 minutes and to be chasing the game like that was not ideal, but take the first 20 out and it was a level playing field.

"We talked all week about their intention to come at us, but they took away our line-out and we couldn't get any momentum until the last part of the first half when we started to play a bit.

"Then we had enough possession and chances to have won it."

Explaining the decision to go for tap penalties than for goal late on he said: "We had the momentum then and it was better to go for the corner and sneak a try. Maybe in hindsight we should have kicked the goals, but it wouldn't have made any difference."

Coach Steve Hansen rued those line-out problems. "We're disappointed we didn't come out the right side of it," he said. "But in the first half we struggled to get any line-out ball. They shut us down and the referee said we couldn't use the tail.

"We couldn't do what we wanted. We turned it round in the second half, but didn't take our opportunities when presented with them."