Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan admitted it was hard to disagree with England being world number one after their performance this afternoon. But more worryingly for the Irishman was the news that Geordan Murphy and Rob Henderson had both picked up injuries. Murphy limped off the pitch after only seven minutes with knee ligament damage, while replacement Henderson failed to reappear in the second half after suffering a groin injury.
O'Sullivan admitted: "It's not looking great at the moment for either of them but we'll know more tomorrow." But Warren Gatland's successor refused to blame the loss of those two and the absence of Keith Wood for the defeat. He added: "It didn't help matters. But it wasn't the reason we lost the game."
O'Sullivan put that down to a lack of possession and said: "I think it was an outstanding first half by England. They dominated position and possession and we always knew that if they did that we would be in trouble. We weathered the first 20 minutes of the storm but the 20 minutes just before half-time turned the game for us."
On their improved showing in the second half he added: "I think our efforts in the second half probably just kept the score down." O'Sullivan was also disappointed with the amount of possession Ireland conceded. "We knew if we were going to do anything the most important thing for us was not to give them so much ball because we knew we would be up against it. But we turned the ball over, lost a couple in the line-out and we didn't have the ball after that to build anything on."
The new Ireland coach also praised England man-of-match Jonny Wilkinson and said: "He gave a complete performance. His distribution was outstanding and he was outstanding at breaking the gain line, coming off either foot into space, and giving us a very, very difficult day."
Filed by Shane Murray
