IRELAND’S DESPERATELY DISAPPOINTING Six Nations performance against England has been filleted by Matt Williams, who told Virgin Media Sport that Joe Schmidt and his team were “out-planned”.
“Look. We just gotta put our hands up and say we got our bums smacked by a superior team”, Williams said post-game.
In the long-run, that is probably going to be good for us. Teams don’t win two Grand Slams for a reason. It’s hard. We probably needed a bit of grounding. The nation, the boys, everyone.
In what is the fiercest critisicm that Schmidt has received in Ireland in some time, Williams said the selection of Robbie Henshaw at full-back backfired.
“Let’s not dodge the truth. We were out-thought and out-planned.
“Sexton hasn’t played in a month, Johnny should have played.
“We played a fullback who hasn’t played a game there in four years; he has only played 60 minutes since November. I’ve seen milk turn faster than Robbie was turning today. He didn’t look ready to play that position because there is so much running in being a fullback.
“England kicked us off the park.
“So we’ve got to say, on every front, their enthusiasm, their energy, their chasing game, their physicality, their pre-game planning, they got it right and we’ve got to put our hands up and say it.”
The result leaves Ireland as one of only two teams with zero points at the end of the first weekend, with ambitions of consecutive Grand Slams sundered.
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