It is rarely a good to see Sean O’Brien or Rob Kearney in a post-match press briefing. Seeing them both can only mean one thing – Ireland have lost.
Kearney and O’Brien are two of Ireland’s most forthright, articulate players and they don’t shirk tough questions.
There are certainly some tough questions for the pair, and outhalf Paddy Jackson, when they enter a cramped press room at Murrayfield Stadium. The final scoreline of 27-22 is visible on a big screen over their shoulders.
Kearney, O’Brien and Jackson can not see it from their vantage point but they can feel it. You can see the crushing sense of loss in their faces.
While the backs deal with the print media, O’Brien talks to us.
“We lost the collisions and gave them front-foot ball,” he reflects. “We just didn’t start that well and that was really it.”
It seems unfair that the Leinster flanker is here, dissecting his third loss in four Test outings, but that is the harsh reality.
Pride in defeat #SCOvIREhttps://t.co/XpUBC4mqN3
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 4, 2017
Ireland coach Joe Schmidt admitted his side had not done enough to get quick ball to Conor Murray and Paddy Jackson. The Scots frustrated the hell out of them at the breakdown and O’Brien tipped his hat to the victors – they had bossed the breakdown for long periods, he said. Whether it was legal or illegal was another matter.
A slow start and a sloppy, penalty-ridden finish. O’Brien spared no-one in his post-mortem of a “lethargic” Ireland:
“We were making a few poor decisions in D [defence] and were sitting off them. It’s still fairly fresh. We’ll have to go back and look at it but we gave them too much respect early on… And when we had the ball, we were losing collisions and not cleaning out the ruck.
“There were a few cheap penalties at the end of the game. A few stupid ones, which gave them more access and a chance to put the game to bed.”
O’Brien lamented the Irish players – Ultan Dillane and Jamie Heaslip were two – ‘spilling a few balls when we got in behind them’. He continued:
“I think we lost two or three in their 22 in the last 20 minutes. That swings momentum their way and takes it back from us.”
The next target is Italy and Ireland will need to win with a bonus point to keep themselves in the title picture. O’Brien bitterly remarked that Ireland had only played for 60 minutes at Murrayfield so recovering for that game in Rome should be no issue.
When it was suggested that the Irish pack had not done a good enough job in getting quick ball to Conor Murray and Jackson, O’Brien stared back. He was not letting this one sit on the pack’s shoulders alone. He replied:
“I think our scrum was quite good and our breakdown work was good [after] half-time. A couple of lineouts went astray but, other than that, we gave them nice, clean ball for the most part.”
Would Scotland give the likes of England, France and Wales similar scraps later in the championship.
“You can be damn sure they will,” he said.
There was a final complaint about losing collisions and he was withdrawn. There was a post-match function and Ireland would share the room with their conquerors.
When the Scots beat it, it hurts an awful lot.
