HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON LAMENTED “six minutes of madness” in which his Irish players collapsed at Wembley.
Ireland held England scoreless across a diligent, disciplined first half but everything fell apart when Liam Scales picked up a second yellow card five minutes after the break for fouling Jude Bellingham in the box. Harry Kane converted the spot kick, and England scored twice more across the next five minutes. Subsequent goals from Jarrod Bowen and Taylor Harwood-Bellis meant Ireland were routed 5-0.
“I am kind of lost for words”, said Hallgrimsson. “Six minutes of madness, it was a shock conceding a penalty, conceding a goal, losing a player. We probably lost our heads at this moment leading into a second goal, a third goal. We lost our heads, gave up.
“We are struggling with confidence and it clearly took away all confidence from what we did really well in the first half. You cannot explain things like this, it just happens. A slap in the face and difficult to come back from.”
Asked to clarify what he meant by the players giving up, he said, “We lost what we were doing in the first half. Maybe too harsh to say ‘give up’, we had a gameplan that was working perfectly but all of a sudden in six minutes there’s no way out.”
Hallgrimsson faced the media trying to balance the positives of Ireland’s first-half performance with the collapse that was to come after the break.
“Excuses when you lose 5-0 is kind of pathetic, to be excusing or talking about positives”, said Hallgrimsson. “It’s embarrassing to lose 5-0.”
Hallgrimsson did say he believed Ireland should have a first-half penalty, when Evan Ferguson was pulled by Marc Guehi in the penalty area.
“I thought it was a penalty for sure. We asked, I don’t remember what the referee said or why he didn’t give it. It would have changed the momentum of the game but I don’t want to make excuses.
“Let’s take that as a positive, building this team forward. We need to play teams like England, that have better players than us. First half gave us an idea how we can play against teams like this.”
Asked whether he now worried he would never be able to improve the confidence levels in the Irish squad, Hallgrimsson said, “if we can play like this for 50 minutes, let’s hope next game we can do it longer and with a little luck. If we had gotten a penalty and scored a goal, it would have been a totally different game.
“I believe in these guys but the past has been tough. We just need to…use this to our advantage, and look at the positives we can take from this game. A lot of it was negative but for me I think it’s important to look at the positives and build from that.”
The game was Lee Carsley’s final match in charge of England: he now returns to the U21s to vacate the premises for Thomas Tuchel. He won five of his six matches in charge, losing at home to Greece in October. Today’s win secured top spot in the group for England, and automatic promotion back to League A.
“I think it is fair to say there is a bit of relief. If we had spoken at the start of the campaign then you would have said ‘well, you are expected to get promotion’ but it is difficult”, said Carsley. “No team has rolled over for us and just let us carry on.
“I have found it challenging personally and the rest of the staff have so it is good that we have finished the campaign with such a strong performance, and I spoke to the players at half-time when it was 0-0.
“I was really happy with the way the crowd responded to the players when they went off the pitch. You could tell that they felt the energy with the team, they intent they had and played with, especially when we lost the ball.
“I said to them that we are going to score. I had total belief that they were going to score so just keep going. And it was pleasing, obviously, to get five goals.”
Heart says Munster, Head says Leinster!
They’re at home and are currently on better form. I think Munster would need a ligind-esq performance full of pashun and the likes to win it. Not saying they can’t though. When it comes to emotional underdog victories Munster are second to none
The Leinster half back change makes a huge difference. Not sure I would have as much confidence with McGrath and Madigan but Sexton was really finding form and he knows how to play the Aviva more than anyone else. It’ll be bloody close. Tense. Paddy power has Leinster -7. Sounds about right
@Ewan, Heart says Leinster, head says Leinster….
When you match up the positions, there aren’t as many duals fighting for Irish starting spots as I thought. D Kearney V Earls, McGrath V Cronin (though his real competition is Healy). Interested how Scannel fares against Cronin, but Best is unquestionably first choice for Ireland. D Ryan V Toner. Stander V Heaslip must be the main match-up.
Sexton V Holland isn’t yet a contest, maybe it will be in a couple years. Murray V Reddan is no longer a contest. Murphy V O’Donnell would have been more interesting before the return of Sean O’Brien and emergence of VanDer Flier.
Ross – agree with some of that, but disagree strongly on one substantial point: Best is no longer clearly first choice for Ireland. He’s been a smashing player and senior figure for Ireland for years, and we are indebted to him.
However:
- he will be 34 in August, so we need to find some alternatives very soon indeed
- he played below his standards for most of the 6N
- he lead Ireland poorly in this past 6N
- his tenure as Ireland captain seems unlikely to extend into next season
- there are a handful of hungry, good, reasonably young hookers awaiting their chance: they wilL force it soon.
Maybe Rury Besht isn’t a great leader, but he’s an outstanding player. 34 isn’t the same for a hooker as it is for a winger. Not saying he’ll last to the World Cup, but he’ll definitely be there next season.
Also, out of curiosity, who’d you have as captain? I don’t think we have any great leaders right now. PS It’s a genuine question, I’ve no idea who’d be the right man. Heaslip wasn’t great in charge either and while a lot of people are calling for POM, I don’t think he should start when Stander and Heaslip are both fit.
I think Best has a season of international rugby left in him.
As for captaincy, it’s a very hard one – partly because we have relatively few natural captains, partly because we have also few players who are guaranteed to start.
Heaslip is a great player, and a fine leader as a number 2 – but simply not a good captain. It hampers him as a player, and he doesn’t seem to know how to be the principal leader.
POM is an excellent captain, but will he start? CJ is probably ahead of him right now, and back row competition is only going to get tougher.
Sexton is a de facto captain, but I don’t think piling additional pressure on him is helpful.
Murray would probably be my pick: miles better than any of his rivals for the shirt, experienced, clever, respected. It would be a step up for him, but he’s always been capable of that in the past.
Brian – I agree to an extent but Best will be first choice hooker heading to South Africa and for the November internationals. Although he’s near the twilight of his career, I’d be surprised if he’s not first choice for the next 6 nations. You mention promising young hookers but I was looking at that recently and it’s an area where I think the provinces are short. Cronin and Strauss are around 30 and there aren’t any other hookers who’ve come in to the frame for Ireland in the last few years. Who would you look at as a potential first choice hooker for Ireland in a few years?
Murray also has the “advantage” of not being his province’s captain. The IRFU have seemed pretty adamant in the past (BOD, POC) that the national captain not also have that provincial responsibility – although Best does still captain Ulster.
Two tickets for this tomorrow. Can’t wait. Want a Leinster win, but hopefully a tight exciting game.
And yet Leo you don’t give JVDF a crack of tommy O’Donnell.
Desperately looking for a bar in Playa del Carmen to show it… 6 people around 1 tablet is a scrum