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"I’ve no doubt that the gap’s closing" | Ireland's James Ryan

Ireland lock James Ryan believes they'll learn from the lessons from Saturday's 18-7 loss to Engl...



Ireland lock James Ryan believes they'll learn from the lessons from Saturday's 18-7 loss to England at Twickenham in the Autumn Nations Cup. 

It was a fourth successive defeat against Eddie Jones' Six Nations champions, with Ireland's line-out against misfiring in London. Ryan says they'll need to work collectively to cut out mistakes at their set-piece.

“It was just a collection of errors, really. It’s so important at this level to be accurate. It’s definitely one big learning that we’ll take.

“It was just little inaccuracies that gave them points. But we’ll take loads from that and I’ve no doubt that we’re going to keep building.

“It’s no one person’s fault. Collectively we need to be more accurate in those pressure moments. We’ll have a look at ourselves next week.”

The Leinster second-row added that the conclusion of the pandemic affected Six Nations and the Nations Cup has been a learning period for the squad.

“Look, this is a new group, new coaching staff. How many players have made their debuts over the last few weeks? It’s kind of a new chapter for us.

“England, in terms of where they are at, they’ve been together a lot longer. I’ve no doubt that the gap’s closing there. We just need to keep growing now. We’ll get so much from games like this as a group.”

Scrum-half Conor Murray also feels it was an improved showing on Saturday when compared to recent trips to London.

"Watching on in the first half and then coming on, we felt a lot better than we have been at Twickenham before.

“There have been times before, let’s just say the last two times we’ve come here, and we’ve known what’s going to come our way in terms of line speed, in terms of the volume of their players and things like that, and their kicking game.

“I thought we dealt with it a lot better and I think we just boxed a little bit more clever.”

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Conor Murray England Ireland James Ryan