TO BE A fly on the wall in the Carton House meeting room this morning. The video review session won’t make for particularly pleasant viewing, as Joe Schmidt’s Ireland begin the inquest into Saturday’s humbling at the hands of England.
No-one quite saw it coming, so there was still an element of shock when Schmidt and a handful of his players gave their immediate reaction to the media deep in the bowels of the Aviva Stadium.
Furlong is tackled by Owen Farrell and Kyle Sinckler. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
But, having had time to reflect on a first defeat in 13 Test matches and consider why it went so horribly wrong, the hard work now begins to find the answers at their Maynooth base.
The bottom line is that England were outstanding from the very first kick-off, bettering Ireland in every facet of the game and setting an aggressive and intense tone the hosts were simply unable to match, or deal with. Ireland, put simply, didn’t turn up.
Schmidt admitted his side were ‘beaten up a bit’, something we haven’t seen for quite some time, and it is the harsh reality facing the players as they reconvened as a squad last night after a couple of hours off to soothe their mental and physical scars.
“That’s probably pretty fair and accurate I would say,” Tadhg Furlong agreed, having had a quiet evening by his own world-class standards. He certainly wasn’t the only one.
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“It’s hard to put a finger on it when you haven’t seen the game back. It’s probably lots of little things all feeding into one. Test match rugby, those sort of all add up, you come off second best.
“It’s really disappointing for us. It’s never nice to lose a Test match but you have to learn, don’t you?”
It’s an unusual place for Ireland to be following the achievements of last year, when they were largely untouchable en route to a Grand Slam victory, a series win Down Under and that indelible defeat of the All Blacks here just three months ago.
But the true test now is how Schmidt’s side recover from Saturday’s disappointment, to ensure this blip in the road doesn’t push them completely off track in a World Cup year.
“I think it is within us, definitely, to turn it around,” Furlong continued. “You just recalibrate, look and learn. We’ve been on a good run, and look, this is just probably a bit of a reality check for us. It’s important now that we look after the bodies, take on what we can learn from the game and it’s a massive game in Scotland next weekend for us now.
“Look, it’s disappointing. First of all we’re at home and we have a really good record here, but again it comes back to doing what we can do.
Mako Vunipola was man of the match. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
“Did we implement that at the start of the game? Not really. Was there some really good play by England? Absolutely. Can we control that going into the next game? Absolutely.
“It’s about refocusing and working hard and our pride, it gets dented, it’s never nice losing at home on the first weekend of the Six Nations. I suppose we have to take it as a learning.”
Overall, it was a sobering evening as Ireland had no answers to Eddie Jones’ tactical masterclass, as his players — from the first until 80th minute — executed the game plan with ruthless efficiency. In many ways, it was the sort of performance we’ve become used to seeing from Schmidt’s side.
Ireland’s tight five were out-muscled and overpowered by the opposition, as Mako Vunipola produced a performance for the ages, making 27 tackles during a man-of-the-match display. It was, by far, his finest in an English jersey.
“The boys were all on the same hymn sheet and that’s all you can ask for,” the Saracens prop said afterwards. “Ireland are too good a side, they are always going to come back into it. It never felt like everything clicked but when we needed a big moment a player stood up.
“We wanted to start the tournament well and we did that today. When you beat Ireland on their home patch then it is a statement in itself. Credit to the team, we are very happy with the win but we are under no illusion that it was the perfect game.”
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Pride dented but Furlong confident Ireland will find a response
TO BE A fly on the wall in the Carton House meeting room this morning. The video review session won’t make for particularly pleasant viewing, as Joe Schmidt’s Ireland begin the inquest into Saturday’s humbling at the hands of England.
No-one quite saw it coming, so there was still an element of shock when Schmidt and a handful of his players gave their immediate reaction to the media deep in the bowels of the Aviva Stadium.
But, having had time to reflect on a first defeat in 13 Test matches and consider why it went so horribly wrong, the hard work now begins to find the answers at their Maynooth base.
The bottom line is that England were outstanding from the very first kick-off, bettering Ireland in every facet of the game and setting an aggressive and intense tone the hosts were simply unable to match, or deal with. Ireland, put simply, didn’t turn up.
Schmidt admitted his side were ‘beaten up a bit’, something we haven’t seen for quite some time, and it is the harsh reality facing the players as they reconvened as a squad last night after a couple of hours off to soothe their mental and physical scars.
“That’s probably pretty fair and accurate I would say,” Tadhg Furlong agreed, having had a quiet evening by his own world-class standards. He certainly wasn’t the only one.
“It’s hard to put a finger on it when you haven’t seen the game back. It’s probably lots of little things all feeding into one. Test match rugby, those sort of all add up, you come off second best.
“It’s really disappointing for us. It’s never nice to lose a Test match but you have to learn, don’t you?”
It’s an unusual place for Ireland to be following the achievements of last year, when they were largely untouchable en route to a Grand Slam victory, a series win Down Under and that indelible defeat of the All Blacks here just three months ago.
But the true test now is how Schmidt’s side recover from Saturday’s disappointment, to ensure this blip in the road doesn’t push them completely off track in a World Cup year.
“I think it is within us, definitely, to turn it around,” Furlong continued. “You just recalibrate, look and learn. We’ve been on a good run, and look, this is just probably a bit of a reality check for us. It’s important now that we look after the bodies, take on what we can learn from the game and it’s a massive game in Scotland next weekend for us now.
“Look, it’s disappointing. First of all we’re at home and we have a really good record here, but again it comes back to doing what we can do.
“Did we implement that at the start of the game? Not really. Was there some really good play by England? Absolutely. Can we control that going into the next game? Absolutely.
“It’s about refocusing and working hard and our pride, it gets dented, it’s never nice losing at home on the first weekend of the Six Nations. I suppose we have to take it as a learning.”
Overall, it was a sobering evening as Ireland had no answers to Eddie Jones’ tactical masterclass, as his players — from the first until 80th minute — executed the game plan with ruthless efficiency. In many ways, it was the sort of performance we’ve become used to seeing from Schmidt’s side.
Ireland’s tight five were out-muscled and overpowered by the opposition, as Mako Vunipola produced a performance for the ages, making 27 tackles during a man-of-the-match display. It was, by far, his finest in an English jersey.
“The boys were all on the same hymn sheet and that’s all you can ask for,” the Saracens prop said afterwards. “Ireland are too good a side, they are always going to come back into it. It never felt like everything clicked but when we needed a big moment a player stood up.
“We wanted to start the tournament well and we did that today. When you beat Ireland on their home patch then it is a statement in itself. Credit to the team, we are very happy with the win but we are under no illusion that it was the perfect game.”
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Six Nations Ireland Tadhg Furlong Win or Learn