Ireland paid a substantial price for their errors in losing 13-23 to the All Blacks in Dublin.
Coach Andy Farrell said Ireland, who went into the game ranked No1 in the world but slipped to third after their loss and South Africa’s 32-15 win over Scotland to regain No1, did not put their game on the field.
“Obviously, the opposition have a big say in that, but we compounded too many errors and almost suppressed ourselves at times, and the energy wasn’t or the accuracy wasn’t what was needed to win a big Test match like that.”
Captain Caelan Doris said he was happy with the way the side responded after halftime.
“We felt we hadn’t fired a shot, and we got momentum back early on the second half, and the message was very much stay on with it.
“But they’re a quality side and when they came back our discipline gave them entry and territory in possession and they came back into it.”
Farrell said they would have clarifications about the penalties they conceded, but whether they were right or wrong didn’t matter; Ireland shouldn’t have suppressed themselves.
“It’s not right to try and be desperate, chasing your tail when you’ve made an error, whether it be a penalty or dropped ball, and then compound that error with another, and all of a sudden field position’s completely gone, and points come on the back of that.
“We did that a number of times so we need to fix our mentality as far as that’s concerned.”
Doris didn’t think his side suffered from their high tackle count in the first half.
“It is pretty taxing defending against a team like that with the quality of their attack, but it wasn’t much of a factor.
Farrell said Ireland had no excuses; the All Blacks deserved to win.
“It was a slow enough game at times and we needed to be in charge of looking after our energy and we didn’t do that well enough.”
