Ireland captain Johnny Sexton had no excuses for his team’s below-par showing as England powered their way to a 24-12 Guinness Six Nations victory today.
It was a scoreline that flattered the Irish as Eddie Jones’s home side put in their best performance since beating the All Blacks in Japan in the World Cup semi-final.
For the third game in a row against England since winning the 2018 Grand Slam at Twickenham, Ireland could not cope with their rivals’ physicality and were 17-0 down at half time after tries from George Ford and Elliot Daly which exposed frailties in the back field as they capitalised on both the luck of a bouncing ball and Ireland’s inability to deal with through-kicks.
“They got two tries from our mistakes, not covering the chip kick, we knew that was going to come and we didn’t take a couple of chances,” Sexton said.
“It was very disappointing in the first half but I was proud of the boys in the second half, the way they fought back.
“We were getting the ball on the back foot and we were trying to get it into the space on the edges but we couldn’t.
We were made to look a bit silly at times. We have to have a look at a few things.
“We need to try to be better. We still have a big home game against Italy in a couple of weeks and, if we can do the business there, we still have a Championship to play for so we have to pick ourselves up pretty quickly."
Responding to suggestions from ITV Sport interviewer Martin Bayfield that his side had looked pedestrian in the opening period, Sexton replied: “It looked a little bit like that against Scotland when we didn’t get quality ball off scrum and lineout and it was a little bit like that today but, at the same time, we need to be a bit better and not try to play in certain areas of the field when we are going backwards.
“We compounded a few errors so we’ve a lot to learn from .When you come to a place like this, when England have their first home game, the atmosphere was incredible and fair play to them they put it up to us.”