Rory Best said that Ireland need to be a lot better after their record loss to England on Saturday.
Ireland conceded eight tries to two in a 57-15 shellacking at Twickenham which follows a disappointing end to their Six Nations campaign where they were also convincingly defeated by Wales.
The match marked Best’s last game at Twickenham and he admitted that Ireland will have to address a lot of issues in the next few weeks with the group’s first World Cup pool game now less than a month away.
“We can be a lot better and we have to be a lot better,” Best told Sky Sports.
“That wasn’t anywhere near the standard that we hold ourselves to. Quite frankly it’s hard to describe it without using a lot of profanity.
“We are going to have to look back and it will not be pleasant viewing but we are going to have to get better.
“We are nowhere near where we need to be. The only positive to take from it is that it’s the middle of August and not the middle of September but even so that’s not an excuse, it’s just the reality of where we are at.”
England beat more than twice as many defenders as Ireland did during the match but Best admits that the Irish forward pack also need to provide a much better platform for the backline than what they offered this weekend.
“We have got to defend a lot better than that and as a pack we’ve got to give our backs a much better platform to work off and then if we get that platform we’ve got to do better stuff with it,” Best added.
“I think right across the board we have to improve significantly.”
