IRELAND CENTRE ROBBIE Henshaw was first pushed in front of the cameras to lament Ireland’s 24-12 loss to England in Twickenham.
It was a final scoreline that greatly flattered Ireland. And Henshaw, who scored Ireland’s opening try after 49 minutes, did not cut the figure of a man taking heart or painting over cracks by pointing out that Ireland out-scored their hosts in the second half.
“Extremely disappointed,” Henshaw told Virgin Media’s Sinead Kissane pitchside.
“Not the ideal start for us, giving them a two-try lead in that first half left us with a lot of work to do.
It’s not good enough. We fought back well in the second half, but we have to take a long hard look at ourselves. We knew they’d come out firing and we didn’t match them.”
Both Henshaw and captain Jonathan Sexton unwittingly echoed some of the messages that came from the Ireland camp before and after the World Cup quarter-final hammering against New Zealand, a ‘good week’ of preparation was presented. But Ireland again followed their best-laid plans with failure to deliver against top class opposition.
“We had a Triple Crown on the line, we couldn’t have been more motivated,” said Sexton.
“We had a great week’s build-up. Sometimes it goes like that. We need to figure out why.”
The captain and out-half highlights his own part in Ireland’s unravelling, coughing up the ball for George Ford to touch down a gift of an early try, but also cites wider issues with how his side played.
“Similar to the Aviva game last year when we didn’t deal with some balls through. 14 points is a lot (to make up).”
He added: “Then we need to look at some of the things we did, why we tried to play a bit too much going backwards when we should have kicked.
“There’s some things we can control, but very disappointing all round.”
Saturday, you clown. If you’re going to troll, try to get the basics right.
Did you know you can personalise your feed to hide articles about sports you aren’t really concerned with and stick to what you know? That might save you some upset.
You can’t, however, filter out the trolls.
I’m up at 7am waiting for the Murray server clock to publish the morning read. You Sir should be walking your greyhound.
3rd rugby article and it not even 8 am yet…look it Sunday is a meaningless match playing for nothing but pride, let’s focus on our national games which take centre stage today
You should set up your own app with your own agenda Christy. Good lad.
As its our National Day its a day of pride so whats the difference between pride today and pride on Saturday ?
Enjoy yer Paddy’s day lads…if you want to personalise and insult someone over their opinion, fair play to ye
Christy it’s people like you who hold the GAA back in the dark ages and not letting it progress to a modern game
Ah now Christy. You’re allowed your opinion and everyone else is allowed an opinion on your opinion and so on. That’s the beauty of it.
If you don’t want your opinion to be scrutinised then don’t put it out there. Or better still, set up your own forum as suggested below.
That being said, Happy Paddys Day!