Hugh Farrelly has some key points for consideration in the wake of Ireland's defeat to France in The Irish Independent
“For a small sporting country, we're not slow to get the knives out. Saturday's 33-10 defeat has provoked an intense, knee-jerk reaction but while it's far from push-the-panic-button time, there are suddenly issue to address and new territory for Declan Kidney to traverse.
“It is not the defeat per se - the unbeaten run could not go on forever - it was the manner of it. Ireland were lined up and summarily executed, something that Kidney has not encountered in his professional career.
“While Kidney's men made a strong start and had scoring opportunities which could have altered the trend of the game, there were passages of play where France appeared to be operating in a different sphere.”
RSS feed
