Ronan O'Gara believes that Ireland-England was decided as England 'had enough' of Ireland's reputation as potential World Cup favourites.
O'Gara joined Off The Ball for Monday Night Rugby, and broke down the reasons behind Ireland succumbing to the English in a 20-32 loss at the Aviva Stadium.
"If you ask why [England overpowered Ireland] - I think the Irish psyche is really suited to having that fear factor, but with their 2018, it's very hard to create that when they are a steamroller and you're bashing everyone that is put in your way," said O'Gara.
It was a specific mindset that England appeared to be in, according to the former Munster no. 10, that ensured
"I think you have got to put yourself in the shoes of the English players - there comes a point in time where they say 'I've had enough.'
"England had enough of hearing how great Ireland are, and that Ireland are going to win the World Cup. These guys are serious players."
"We know James Ryan's CV as a professional rugby player; he doesn't know what losing looks like. But he got a big belt on Saturday.
"Before that, he was going to prepare, do what he does every week and we'll get a performance and a result.
Alan Quinlan also joined us on Monday Night Rugby, and had his say on why Ireland failed to get over the gain line to the extent that they had hoped - he focused on the tactical breakdown.
"At the initial point of contact, the focus was to make sure that there was a real wrestling match at the breakdown and that is a couple of seconds slow," said Quinny.
"When that is a couple of seconds slow, they realign with four or five guys on the fringe and they say [they] can get off the line, so England can double-team - they go low and high on Furlong so that is a mess [...] It's intelligence.
"They probably focused on how do they stop Ireland rather than playing well.
"I imagine most of it was slow Ireland down, make it a dogfight, and when the ball is passed to the runners, to make sure that they had two or three smashing them on the gain line."
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