“I thought we were rudderless.”
Eddie O’Sullivan was critical of Ireland’s performance in their 32-15 victory over England at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.
Ireland claimed a bonus-point win over Eddie Jones’ team, but made tough work of the game, despite having an extra player for almost the entire Six Nations match.
England lock Charlie Ewels was sent-off after 82 seconds in London, but Ireland didn’t secure the result until the final stages of the contest. Former Ireland manager O’Sullivan was not impressed with the team’s display.
Eddie O’Sullivan on Ireland’s win over England.
“I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid on this one,” O’Sullivan said on RTÉ Sport.
“This is a really poor performance. We didn’t put England away after the 72, 73 minute. 14 men for most of the game. I thought we were pretty rudderless for most of the game.
“We pulled away in the end, England were out on their feet, we put together a nice passage of play, a try broke England and it was all over.
“But three points with 10 minutes to go was shocking.
“Our scrum was a mess, our discipline was awful, our handling errors were off the chart, and we still came away with a bonus-point win because England just ran out of gas,” he continued.
“But no one’s going to convince me… If we played like that against 15 men today, we wouldn’t have won, it’s a fact.
“So we can celebrate the win and the four points, winning at Twickenham, winning on the road, all that’s great, but that is not a good performance.
“We can’t expect teams to play with 14 men every week. Happy with the win, happy with the bonus point, but let’s not get too carried away here.
You can watch O’Sullivan speak about Ireland below.
"Our scrum was a mess" – Eddie O'Sullivan didn't pull any punches as he assessed the Irish performance at Twickenham #RTErugby pic.twitter.com/qKGVmMhnVn
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) March 12, 2022
Ireland have the chance to win the Triple Crown against Scotland next Saturday in Dublin, and could also win the Six Nations championship if France slip up against England in Paris.
