Rónan Kelleher doesn't believe Ireland's defeat to New Zealand last week can be attributed to a "Lions hangover".
The hooker was one of 14 players in Saturday’s matchday squad who toured Australia this summer, among a total contingent of 18 Irish players who were involved in the Lions squad.
With that tour running up to early August, the Irish Lions have been lightly raced in the early stages of the season.
Kelleher featured twice for Leinster in the URC before linking up with Ireland, but Garry Ringrose, Jamison Gibson-Park, Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne and Bundee Aki only had one game under their belt for their provinces. Jack Conan, meanwhile, was making his first appearance of the season in Saturday's defeat to the All Blacks.
That lack of match sharpness was evident on Saturday, as Ireland gave up a 13-7 lead to New Zealand in the final quarter, conceding three tries to eventually lose 26-13.
However the hooker, who featured from the bench in all three Test matches in Australia, doesn't believe the Irish Lions contingent are struggling to get up to full speed.
"Obviously it wasn't what we wanted," he said of Saturday’s defeat.
"We obviously went there with a plan and we didn't execute it but I don't think there was a hangover, really.
"I think it was more just us not doing our jobs the best for our ability. And yeah, obviously, on the day we weren't good enough."
Kelleher believes he and his team-mates can’t use a lack of gametime as an excuse for how Saturday’s defeat unfolded.
"I can only speak for myself but I don’t think that’s really the case [being undercooked]," said the 27-year-old.
"We had a good pre-season, a good stint. We had a couple of games coming into it. I feel like lads were fresh, lads were ready to go, lads were chomping at the bit.
"I just think it came down to our execution on the day. We just got it wrong at times. It’s the biggest thing, just disappointing really."
While there is no shame in losing to New Zealand, the manner of the defeat is what has stung the group the most.
In his five years as head coach, Andy Farrell has constantly stressed the need to "stay in the fight" when games aren’t going according to plan, and that mentality has served them well in the past, such as their comeback series win in New Zealand in 2022, and the second Test versus South Africa in 2024.
And Kelleher (below) admits their late collapse on Saturday falls well below those standards.
He said: "I came off the bench, I was part of that.
"It was difficult out there, we just didn’t manage to do what we said we were going to do, which was to get two-man shots, slow up their breakdown with dominant collisions and we just didn’t manage to do that.
"And then obviously once they got a bit of momentum on us they managed to keep the foot on the throat and we just couldn’t wrestle that momentum back.
"You can't let them have that lightning-quick ball that they want, because then they're, all of a sudden, playing on top of you.
"We just didn't do that in the last 20 minutes. We never really dominated the collision, never really dominated the tackle, and then that just led to us absorbing pressure, absorbing pressure, and then we ended up defending whilst they had a penalty advantage as well, which made it difficult as well.
"It was on us players' responsibility to make sure that we get them two-man tackles, create that time and tackle that they talked about, and actually create a bit of momentum for the team and get a bit of energy back."
With Ireland expected to make several changes for this Saturday’s visit of Japan to Aviva Stadium (12.40pm, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), Kelleher could be promoted to the starting team in a rejigged pack.
Ireland’s late collapse ultimately decided the game last week, but they could have been much further ahead had their lineout not been so inefficient, losing five of their 16 throws.
And although four of those lineout malfunctions were in the first half, long before Kelleher entered the pitch, the lineout struggled have been a feature of this Irish squad for two years.
"Obviously the lineout has multiple components that go into it. It’s a lot of moving pieces in it but I think we just need to go back to nailing our individual drill as players," he said.
"I thought we had a good plan in place, we had good calling options and stuff like that, but at times maybe a bit of our drill let us down.
"At times it was good. I thought at times that we navigated that red card period quite well but obviously ultimately in the end it wasn’t what we wanted.
"It just comes back to really knuckling down and nailing our drill individually so everyone has an individual role in the lineout in that whole process. We have to make sure we’re at 100% in that every time."
Watch Ireland v Japan in the Quilter Nations Series on Saturday from 12pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra
