Ronan O'Gara says the reaction to Ireland's defeat to England at Twickenham last Saturday has been overly negative, and suggests they weren't too far off clicking in the right areas.
Following a fourth successive defeat to England, Brian O'Driscoll, Alan Quinlan and Andy Dunne were among those to highlight the recurring failures of the Irish attack and setpiece.
However, speaking to Joe on Wednesday Night Rugby, Ireland legend and La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara said he didn't think the performance was as bad as is being made out, having just completed his re-watch of the game.
RONAN O'GARA ON IRELAND
"I found an awful lot of comments very negative, there was a very negative vibe post-game," he said.
"England in Twickenham are different to a lot of teams, and I was expecting it to be a bit of a mismatch, and a rollercoaster in the fact that England would be steamrolling Ireland. In my analysis I didn't see that.
"The Ireland scrum on their own feed was solid and they were able to launch attacks. You look at the time that Bundee Aki made yards on Farrell on a positive carry," he added.
IRISH ATTACK
O'Gara says the were glimpses of Ireland getting the ball into wider channels, particularly in the first half when Keith Earls came close to crossing for a try.
He says the Irish players will realise the spaces were there t attack, when they review the game for themselves.
"The big frustration from Ireland when they review this will be the fact that at times they ran into the strength of the England defence which was probably 5m out from the ruck if you understand me. But if you can get that a channel of two wider; you can see in the 28th minute - I think when they got the ball to Earls and he made a half break - there was tempo on the ball."
KELLEHER AND BYRNE WILL LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE
The Irish lineout - and in particular Ronan Kelleher - came in for criticism following the defeat, with Ireland's setpiece failing on a number of occasions in the English 22.
O'Gara was quick to defend Kelleher who was playing at Twickenhem for the very first time, highlighting his own experiences as a young player in that ground, and how it made him the player he would go on to become.
"People at home watching this have to understand for whatever reason, and I wouldn't blame it on Kelleher. The lineout malfunction, especially three lineout 10m from the England line. The worst case scenario even against a quality team is that you're coming away with three points each time.
"I think people ask what experience is? It's O'Gara missing five kicks in his first European Cup final, and being able to reply in his second and third and fourth. I think the coaches and players see a lot in Kelleher, and yes it's disappointing that it hasn't functioned, but I don't think you just discard a guy for something like that", he said.
It was also a difficult afternoon for outhalf Ross Byrne, who had the 10 jersey in the absence of Johnny Sexton.
It was Byrne's first test start since the heavy defeat at the same venue 15 months ago. And while O'Gara was quick to praise the Leinster man's game-intelligence, he had this advice for the 26-year old.
"I would say the big work-on for Ross Byrne - he's a great game manager - is you can't plant when you pass the ball, so if he can actually run through on his passes it can add another dimension to Ireland's attack.
"I think where the space is, we didn't probably achieve what we wanted to. I made a few notes about how when you feel pressure you tuck the ball, and we carried into their strong D a lot.
"There are examples of it when we got Aki in the wide channels, Farrell in the wide channels, Earlsy in the wide channels. That means you're on the front foot, but after that - because England's defence is so good and they come at you so hard around the 3-4-5-6 defender - if we can get beyond that it there would be interesting avenues to explore."
LISTEN: RONAN O'GARA | WHERE NEXT FOR IRELAND AFTER ENGLAND HUMBLING? | WEDNESDAY NIGHT RUGBY
Team of Us. Everyone In.
Vodafone. The main sponsor of the Irish Rugby Team.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
