Donal Lenihan is worried that the mental baggage carried by the Irish players could be brought into the World Cup and believes a positive performance against Wales this weekend is essential.
Joe Schmidt's side crashed to a record-breaking defeat to England on Saturday and only have back-to-back warm-up games against Wales to come before departing for Japan, starting this Saturday at the Principality Stadium (kick-off 2.30pm).
The breakdown of Ireland’s set-piece, porous defending and inability to retain possession saw the visitors outscored eight tries to two at Twickenham and speaking on 2fm’s Game On, Lenihan believes the decision to play such a game off the back of a gruelling warm weather camp in Portugal was always going to be high risk.
"I think Joe Schmidt took a calculated gamble coming into this game on the basis that the players had been in Portugal for nine days, training at 30-plus degrees of heat which is draining, so the possibility of it going horribly wrong was there in advance," he said.
"Even in his worst nightmare, I don't think Joe Schmidt could have envisaged that it would work out as badly as it did.
"I have never seen Ireland defend as badly as they did. There was a malaise and a lack of energy you would be worried about."
Warren Gatland is expected to ring changes in personnel as he finalises his World Cup plans, but another below-par performance from Ireland will do little to boost morale ahead of a front-loaded pool stage for the men in green.
There is no reason why Ireland can't hit the ground running at the World Cup, but it’s the mental baggage I’d be worried about
"It’s hugely important that Ireland get a win on Saturday, or at the very least a performance," he said.
"It might help us that Wales might pick a second team, but I’d have a worry that so many key players, the likes of Robbie Henshaw, Johnny Sexton, James Ryan and Jack Conan, haven’t started a game. You’re running out of time.
"There is no reason why Ireland can’t hit the ground running at the World Cup, but it’s the mental baggage I’d be worried about, particularly on the back of the disappointing Six Nations we had.
"I don’t think anybody expected Ireland to win at Twickenham on Saturday for a variety of reasons, but the paucity of the performance has everybody under pressure now."
