TO BE A fly on the wall in the Carton House meeting room this morning. The video review session won\u2019t make for particularly pleasant viewing, as Joe Schmidt\u2019s Ireland begin the inquest into Saturday\u2019s humbling at the hands of England.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Furlong is tackled by Owen Farrell and Kyle Sinckler. Source: Gary Carr\/INPHO<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019t turn up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Schmidt admitted his side were \u2018beaten up a bit\u2019, something we haven\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably pretty fair and accurate I would say,\u201d Tadhg Furlong agreed, having had a quiet evening by his own world-class standards. He certainly wasn\u2019t the only one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put a finger on it when you haven\u2019t seen the game back. It\u2019s probably lots of little things all feeding into one. Test match rugby, those sort of all add up, you come off second best.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really disappointing for us. It\u2019s never nice to lose a Test match but you have to learn, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the true test now is how Schmidt\u2019s side recover from Saturday\u2019s disappointment, to ensure this blip in the road doesn\u2019t push them completely off track in a World Cup year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is within us, definitely, to turn it around,\u201d Furlong continued. \u201cYou just recalibrate, look and learn. We\u2019ve been on a good run, and look, this is just probably a bit of a reality check for us. It\u2019s important now that we look after the bodies, take on what we can learn from the game and it\u2019s a massive game in Scotland next weekend for us now.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cLook, it\u2019s disappointing. First of all we\u2019re at home and we have a really good record here, but again it comes back to doing what we can do.<\/p>\n
Mako Vunipola was man of the match. Source: Gary Carr\/INPHO<\/p>\n
\u201cDid 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about refocusing and working hard and our pride, it gets dented, it\u2019s never nice losing at home on the first weekend of the Six Nations. I suppose we have to take it as a learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, it was a sobering evening as Ireland had no answers to Eddie Jones\u2019 tactical masterclass, as his players \u2014 from the first until 80th minute \u2014 executed the game plan with ruthless efficiency. In many ways, it was the sort of performance we\u2019ve become used to seeing from Schmidt\u2019s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys were all on the same hymn sheet and that\u2019s all you can ask for,\u201d the Saracens prop said afterwards. \u201cIreland 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.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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