IRELAND COACH DECLAN Kidney admitted his disappointment at his team’s late, late defeat to Wales on Sunday, and says that lessons need to be learned before the clash against France in Paris next Saturday.
Tries from Rory Best and Tommy Bowe had seen the Irish assume a commanding lead, but a brilliant effort from George North and Leigh Halfpenny’s late, disputed penalty proved the home side’s undoing.
“It’s really disappointing to finish off that way, and we’re just going to have to work through it for next weekend,” said the former Munster coach.
“We had the ball for long periods of time and we didn’t build on the points we did get.
Kidney added: “We got ten points ahead early in the second half and never pressed home that advantage. We have to make sure that we do build on those occasions when we get ahead.
“We pressed well but once we got inside their half there were a lot of very static rucks. We really need to be a ruthless in those positions.
“It’s like everything else in life, we work our way through and take our lessons from it.”
Kidney, speaking to RTE, refused to be drawn on whether major changes would be made for the clash against France.
“Emotions are running high but we’ll look at the videos over the next 24 hours and make our decisions based on that, rather than being kneejerk about it. Everybody’s in the mix (for Paris).”
Paul O’Connell, captain of the Irish side, felt that a lack of concentration in the team’s defence proved its undoing towards the end of the game.
“With five minutes to go you would have fancied us to win it – we put ourselves in a position to win it, but unfortunately we didn’t close it out.”
“The way we played in the first half was disappointing, but our defence played well. When we did have the ball and played at pace and with intensity, we were very good, and we did put ourselves in a position to win it, we just didn’t close it out.”
“Towards the end we didn’t defend with our heads up and that was disappointing and frustrating, it gave them the chance to put us under a lot of pressure.”
Television pundit George Hook, meanwhile, was damning about Ireland’s performance and stuck the boot into Kidney, in particular.
“This was an incredibly callow performance from Ireland. Ferris, Heaslip and O’Brien are mismatched, and they’re not the best back row in the world. Kidney stands indicted by that performance,” said Hook.
“He’s not very imaginative and his teams reflect his attitude.”
If we continue to ignore FORM in the Heineken Cup then this will continue. Donnacha Ryans form was IGNORED,indeed the coach said he wasn’t good enough, A plonkers statement that.
Ronan O Gara’s form was ignored, as was Sean Cronin, Peter O’Mahony, O’Malley and others.
We can talk up our H Cup position but if we ignore the FORM players who got us there then we are all just wasting time following , never mind supporting, The National Team.
Grasped defeat from jaws of victory. Form players have to be picked. Terrible start.
Lessons needed to learned after the world cup defeat. We’re better than that ….
P45 for Mr Kidney.
Time for brave decisions. Bring it.
What a sickner : (
Ireland haven’t moved forward since the world cup. Wales have. Not a nice way to lose, but unfortunately Wales were the better side.
Ireland hasn’t moved forward since 2009!
Wales Grandslam ?? A poor England away with Italy and Scotland at home. France at home last game, we have a decent chance :-)
As long as Scotland don’t get saddled with anymore Irish referees, I think they can do a lot of damage!!!
On the verge of victory, the lads remind me of a nerd ejaculating prematurely with excitement as they’re about to bed a cracker. Losing nerves at the vital moments.
Nice, I LoLed
try to get out and meet people. learn to love yoursels. On the game, arrogent, lazy, headless, not good enough. The skill is there. the players are there. heineken cup winning coach too. too cocky. ill prepared. lazy. shame on you boys. we expect more at this stage.
Hook has a point about our backrow….hate to admit it. O’Brien has the potential to be a world class backrow but he is not a 7. Need to tighten up our midfield defence also, no room for missed tackles against the French next week or we will suffer another defeat…..
Are we making progress under Declan Kidney????
Biggest disapointment was that going into the second half Wales were missing 7 1st team regulars, lost the star player Winterburn at half time and had a man in the sin bin for 10 minutes and we still lost it……
Winterburn???? Shhhhhhhhhh be quiet now and go back to watching soccer!!
Ireland were very sloppy. no clear lines. they need to attack fast and attack strong . if you want to win a game learn to “Dominate”.
Donacha Ryan should’ve got man of the match for his outstanding 20 minute contribution & I have no doubt that he’ll start next week…..hopefully Earls will be back too, &if george hook got red carded that would be the icing on the cake!
Firstly Ferris should not have been sent off … secondly the irish team as seen on a constant basis cannot gel as a team – they are all individual players – Heaslip and O’Brien are clear examples … And thirdly – irish players hearts seem to be at club level – and we see this clearly in europe where they dominate … Johnny Sexton is world class for Leinster but is like a schoolboy for Ireland.Declan Kidney needs to get the boot – he shows no enthusiasm or emotion …
Ferris went in the last few minutes. Made no difference. But yes. Ireland not team players…
Soooo. Does Ireland need a kidney transplant?
we really haven’t gone anywhere since 2009. the same basic squad, the same weaknesses and no new game plan. we are stagnant and teams we beat in 2009 for the slam have overtaken us. we’ll beat scotland and italy by small margins, get hammered by france and the england game (despite how bad they are) cud be anyones! this will be yet another 6 nations where the irish squad completely fails to progress even in the slightest they’ve learned nothing from the wc. we’ve nothing to play for now, the slam is gone, the triple crown is gone, we stand nxt to no chance of beating france. all we can hope for is that we can ruin someones party (ie someone elses triple!) along the way and what use is that?!
Enjoyed that. Best match of the weekend. Ireland wails…
Kidney is such a gent and we played a some nice rugby.. But we lacked that killer drive that.
Kicking ball away to a flawless welsh attack was handing them the game.
once again we were afraid to play from deep.. Unlike the welsh.
Time for new faces and a bolder attack
The best centre in the world wasn’t playing! Ireland are at best average without him!
He WAS the best centre!!!
Taking the pish…
simple reason why ireland lost, wales are a better team than us and a good big un is better than a good little un. also International test rugby is a step up from heineken cup so h cup form is’nt always a good predictor.