'At times - we’ve delivered really well what we’re hoping to do. At other times we’ve slipped off a little a bit. Simon spoke about it for sure on Wednesday for his review. It’s something we need to improve on.'
Paul O'Connell has admitted the Ireland review last Monday was concerned in part with the defending against Wales at the Principality Stadium.
Ireland missed 20 tackles in the brilliant, brilliant win Marseille against France and 25 tackles when losing to England in the 2024 Six Nations for instance; this Six Nations it was 33 missed against England and 25 against Scotland. "It’s a very different challenge to what we’re used to. A lot of teams play very structured rugby, they’re a little bit different.
“He’s obviously a very good second-row forward and he does all the second-row stuff very well, he’s very adept at that Toulouse way of playing. He’s been excellent for France in the last few years, he’s a big part of the challenge for us. "There is a lot more unstructured play happening in the Top 14, look at Toulouse playing, at Bordeaux playing, and you even look at Vern Cotter bringing some of that down to Auckland in Super Rugby, it's been really effective for those teams, and they’re very good at it.
Six Nations France Rugby Union Team Paul O'connell Robbie Henshaw Jamie Osborne Andy Farrell Simon Easterby
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