Wales turned their thoughts to a final Six Nations showdown against France after a controversial try helped seal a 19-13 win over Ireland on Saturday.

Ireland raced into an early lead through a championship record-equalling 24th try by Brian O'Driscoll and a conversion and penalty from Ronan O'Gara.

But the game was turned on its head when Wales captain Matthew Rees fed Mike Phillips a quick throw-in at the line-out.

The halfback raced away to score in the corner for a try James Hook converted to take the home side out to 16-13.

Referee Jonathan Kaplan awarded the try after consulting his touch judge, who had failed to spot that the ball Rees tossed in was not the ball kicked to touch, as rules dictate.

Ireland skipper O'Driscoll was fuming after the match.

"If I was wrong, personally I'd be embarrassed. Games hang in the balance on such decisions.

"We feel pretty hard done by today. Test matches are won and lost on small little moments and the game swings with tries and that was a huge moment.

"It's a seven pointer and we've lost by one."

Controversy aside, Wales coach Warren Gatland was left content with the result, saying his side's defensive qualities had been hardened by a string of largely losing match-ups against the world's top three rugby nations, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

"I hope today puts things into perspective," said the Kiwi, who was also coach of Ireland from 1998-2001.

"I don't think we're as bad as people were making out. We had a run of games we didn't win, but we were playing the best teams in the world."

The victory means Wales, who have beaten Scotland (24-6) and Italy (24-16) but lost to England (26-19), remain in contention for winning the Six Nations.

It was only the second defeat in Cardiff since 1983 for Ireland, who this season have beaten Italy (13-11) and Scotland (21-18), but went down 25-22 to France.

The performance of both sides will hardly have impressed their World Cup rivals, however, a catalogue of handling errors, turnovers and inaccurate aerial ping-pong littering a disappointing spectacle in which a lot of bluster added up to not very much.

But it was a victory that man of the match Hook, who scored 11 points, gladly took as they made it three successive wins after an opening defeat to the English.

"It's superb, to be honest. We fully deserved the win, though, to be honest anyone could have won the match," said Hook.

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