Ireland coach fans ‘don’t lose faith’ after Twickenham disappointment.
One that got away. It is becoming a common theme.
Ireland could not strongly claim they deserved to win this game but they were certainly given short shrift by referee Romain Poite and his Television Match Official companion.
English players landed multiple off the ball hits, kicked recklessly at rucks and Chris Robshaw inhabited various places on the pitch that were all offside. To the 21-10 victors, the spoils.
Perhaps the key grievance came when Josh van der Flier powered over, with just under 10 minutes to go. It looked a dead-cert try, and one replay suggested such, but other angles muddied the waters and the TMO told Poite to chalk it off.
That could have left the score 21-17. Post-match, Schmidt was unhappy with that call and England slowing ball down a couple of minutes beforehand. He told us:
“Yeah, we saw that angle and thought it was a try. The players saw it and thought that too.
“We can’t buy a trick at the moment.
“It’s frustrating. It could have got us back in the game with five or six minutes left and them a man down. It came about again when he drove a lineout again, they infringed and it looked like we were going to go very close.
“That build-up for Josh’s try came from a line break from Ultan Dillane. We et quick ball there and, I think, we score. It was an evening for frustration but we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to get the support there quicker and not allow them to slow that down.”
Asked where the winning and losing of the game was, Schmidt said, “I felt we let them come back at us too easily. It was hard to stop them and I think there was a bit of fatigue there after the first half.”
Ireland’s lineout failed at crucial times in the game. The visitors lost three lineouts inside the English 22 to toss away any sort of momentum or scoreboard pressure.
“They squeezed up the lineout really well,” said Schmidt. “That platform didn’t work for us.” Captain Rory best added:
“The gap squeezed up a wee bit. They were moving late and moving into areas where we wanted to set up the maul. To miss some opportunities in key areas is disappointing.”
As it stands, with regret nagging away at the beaten Irish, England are on course for a Grand Slam.
Ireland have one point to show for their efforts.
