RORY BEST BLAMED ‘silly mental errors’ for Ireland’s 22-9 defeat to Wales in Cardiff last night, a result that means Joe Schmidt’s men are out the running for the Six Nations title.
Several failures from close-range attacks were hugely damaging to the visitors’ attempts to secure the win that would have possibly meant a title decider against England in Dublin next weekend, with the Irish lineout involved on a handful of occasions.
Ireland’s failure at the Principality Stadium means they have lost two games from their four fixtures in the Six Nations so far, with an opening-weekend defeat to Scotland meaning Schmidt’s side got off to a poor start in the championship.
However, Best argued against the idea that Ireland are slipping away from the kind of consistency they have prided themselves on since Schmidt took over in 2013.
“It’s hugely frustrating to lose these games,” said Best last night. “I think the difference now is that when we talk about consistency compared four or five years, then it was a really good performance then a really poor performance, really good performance, really poor performance.
“Now we have a reasonable level of consistency, but on our off days we just make a couple of unforced errors, which at this level are massive. We had a few opportunities to score which we didn’t convert, through the maul try or simple knock-ons.
“That costs you dearly. In terms of consistency, we strive to be better and win the next moment. In terms of overall performances, we do get a reasonable level, it’s just those silly mental errors.”
Best and head coach Schmidt both expressed their disappointment with Ireland’s lineout display last night.
While they retained possession on 10 of their 13 throws, the losses out of touch were very costly, never more so than when Alun Wyn Jones picked them off with the Welsh tryline in sight inside the first quarter of the game.
“They just read it, we tried to sneak Seanie [O'Brien] in there and Alun Wyn Jones came through and over the top,” said hooker Best.
“There were a few going backwards that he was chasing over the top of it. They are a good defensive lineout and we’re disappointed to lose those couple. When a team is rushing forward and trying to guess a bit, we moved to where they’d guess we’d be.
“Sometimes you call the move as they’re coming forward. You sort of wish you could wait, but you can’t. We had some good lineouts but we’re disappointed with the ones that we lost, especially that one five metres out.”
While Best’s focus was largely on Ireland’s shortcomings, he did also pay credit to the excellent Welsh performance.
I think certainly all week and yesterday as well in the press conference, we were saying that we knew Wales were a quality side,” said Best. “You look at their team, the performance against England, the first-half against Scotland, they’re quality players
“We know them from playing week in and week out in the Pro12. We weren’t saying there was any type of demise, we knew this would be a really tough Test match.
“That’s how it proved to be. Joe said it would come down to fine margins, we hoped we would get enough going our way and we didn’t. We made a few individual errors but they put a lot of pressure on us because they’re a quality side.”
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