Players have to look at themselves, says frustrated O’Gara

RONAN O’GARA’S first game as Irish captain was a massive disappointment for a player who had great expectations but discovered his team simply wasn’t up to the mark.

O’Gara gave it everything but like another key senior player, Paul O’Connell, if anything, tried too hard to reverse a game going irretrievably in England’s favour.

“I think players will have to look inside themselves,’’ O’Gara commented. “I think we will just have to have more pride in our performance. We’re well capable of playing well. We have proved that in the past, but we need to do it on a more consistent basis. There is huge ambition within the team and we’re very frustrated. Now that it’s the end of the championship we have to reassess and see where we’re going from here. From a personal point of view, it’s good there’s a European Cup to be played.

“I don’t think being captain impinged on my performance in any way. I really enjoyed it. I’ve been captain for the majority of the big games this season with Munster, and because I was official captain with Ireland today it didn’t change my role.”

O’Gara had to face the media along with coach Eddie O’Sullivan. However, he was the only senior player to do so — forcing a couple of “rookies’’, Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald, and the relatively inexperienced Andrew Trimble to take on that responsibility.

“We got out of the blocks really well and got 10 points up, but we did nine turnovers, which is criminal, and can’t be done at this level,’’ said try-scorer Kearney. “A lot of our final passes didn’t go to hand and on the day we didn’t gel as we would have liked.

“Two out of five wins is obviously disappointing, but this has been a huge learning curve for me. This is the stage where I’ve always wanted to be, and even though results didn’t go the team’s way, I’ve really enjoyed the experience.” Kearney agreed with skipper O’Gara’s contention that “the team is low in confidence’’, adding that “you only have to look at how many players reached their full potential on the day and probably nobody did.”

Like Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald looks the kind of guy readymade to step up to the plate at international level. He is a decidedly dangerous runner and I believe O’Sullivan was mistaken in not giving him a starting place from the outset of the campaign.

“I was delighted to get so much time on the pitch, but in saying that, there was the obvious disappointment of losing by such a big margin,’’ Fitzgerald observed. “I felt we were in the game up to halfway through the second half, but they pulled away then. When we were in the game, I saw a lot of ball and I was happy with that because when you’re out on the wing you don’t see too much of it. It was quick out there and I really enjoyed it and I felt very comfortable.”

Kearney and Fitzgerald are both regarded as the future of Irish back play. The same could hardly be said of Andrew Trimble, an honest, committed player who probably isn’t helped by switching between wing and centre almost every week. His defensive shortcomings were brutally exposed by Wales and England, and could be the reason why he will largely be regarded as reserve material once the likes of Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy are fit again.

Trimble expressed an ambition “to become a leader of the team” and while he is unlikely to be granted that wish, he was certainly on the money when commenting that “you can’t turn over the ball nine times in your opponents’ 22 and expect to win Test games.’’

He defended embattled O’Sullivan saying: “It’s not Eddie’s fault that we dropped balls, it’s not Eddie’s fault that we got isolated and turned the ball over. We knocked the ball on and that’s our fault.”

Scorers for England: Tries: Sackey, Tait, Noon. Cons: Cipriani 3. Pens: Cipriani 4.

ENGLAND: Balshaw, Sackey, Noon, Flood, Vainikolo, Cipriani, Wigglesworth, Sheridan, Mears, Vickery, Shaw, Borthwick, Croft, Lipman, Easter.

Replacements: Tait for Sackey (48), Wilkinson for Flood (53), Hodgson for Wigglesworth (75), Chuter for Mears (76), Stevens for Vickery (60), Kay for Shaw (61), Haskell for Lipman (64).

Scorers for Ireland: Tries: Kearney. Cons: O’Gara. Pens: O’Gara.

IRELAND: Murphy, Bowe, Trimble, Horgan, Kearney, O’Gara, Reddan, Horan, Best, Hayes, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, Leamy, D. Wallace, Heaslip. Replacements: Fitzgerald for Murphy (35), P. Wallace for Horgan (77), Stringer for Reddan (71), Buckley for Horan (67), Jackman for Best (71), Easterby for Leamy (12), O’Driscoll for D. Wallace (67).

Attendance: 82,000

Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia).