Ronan O’Gara believes perfectionist Joe Schmidt will be “appalled” by Ireland's error-strewn performance in the 27-22 defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield.
Having trailed Scotland 21-5 at one stage and 21-8 at the interval, the visitors fought back to lead with 10 minutes remaining before Greig Laidlaw’s two late penalties ensured a win for Vern Cotter’s side.
The RTÉ rugby analyst believes the damage was done in the opening period.
“He’s obsessed with performance. If the guys get a performance, the rest looks after itself,” he said.
“Joe is just focused on performance...I think he was absolutely shattered with how the players played in the first 40 minutes.
“I think he’s appalled.”
Fellow pundit Shane Horgan said that this team will take little from defeat.
“It’s not a time for learnings. This is a team that is mature. They are coming in with good form. They have been at the top of their game for nine months,” he said.
“It was a time to deliver and they didn’t deliver today. That’s disappointing.
“The back play was poor. In the second half there were a couple of individual sparks, good lines, but overall as an attacking unit, the backline was poor.
“The one-out runners were not good enough.”
He also said Ireland’s half-back partnership of Paddy Jackson and Conor Murray struggled to make an impression in Edinburgh.
“I think he [Jackson] kept the game narrow and didn’t exploit the space we have seen in recent games. The variation in his pass wasn’t as good as it could have been.
“Conor Murray, who is generally one of our best players, also had a poor game I thought.
"His kicking game wasn’t good. He wasn’t helped by poor ball presentation, but it wasn’t the influential game we would have expected from him.”
