IRELAND FULLBACK ROB Kearney says the Irish dressing room was in a ‘miserable’ mood after giving up an eight-point lead in today’s Six Nations clash with Scotland.
A Paddy Jackson penalty and Craig Gilroy try had given Ireland a paltry reward for dominance in possession, but from the 52nd minute, four Greig Laidlaw penalties set the hosts on course to record their first back-to-back wins in the competition since 2001.
“We probably lacked a little of that clinical edge.” Kearney told RTE post-match.
“We got penalties, we didn’t take them and we gave away too many penalties in the second half and just lost that bit of the territory battle.
“I think the signs are pretty clear why we didn’t win on the day.”
On a day when no Irish player would claim to have played well, Kearney reached for the positives of a game where chances were created in the first half and possession dominated throughout.
Trying
However, in moments such as this, the positivity tends to feel extremely hollow.
“The opportunities were there, we were trying to play rugby, we got a lot of possession, we put ourselves in good positions. And, okay, unfortunately the result wasn’t there for us but we have to take a little solace in the fact that we were creating things.”
Pushed further, and with the reality of losing two games out of three Triple Crown clashes and with only 21 points scored in the last 200 minutes of rugby, Kearney did add that he was left feeling miserable, particularly as they now must wait another fortnight before having an outlet to vent their frustration.
“It’s pretty miserable, I won’t lie about it. It’s not a nice feeling and everyone’s very disappointed.
“We can’t hide from it, we’ve got to be honest with ourselves. It’s unfortunate we’ve got another week now before… we have a week’s rest, but we’d love to get them back on the field next week, but we have to come out really fighting against France and make a big statement.
“We still have the basis of a really good team. We really believe that and we will continue to believe that and we’ll continue to play rugby. We just have to hope that, on the day, we can get that clinical edge. The parts of the game we were poor at today, we need to be better at.”
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