Doyle searches for answers as Irish simply shredded

Philip Doyle sensed the nerves in the warm-up, but they had never been a cause for concern in the past.

These players had proven themselves in big games before. Squeezing through against Italy in a soggy downpour and claiming the Grand Slam last year stood out. So too last week’s three-point defeat of New Zealand.

In retrospect, he acceded that maybe the thin air of a World Cup semi-final had messed with his players’ heads, but the mechanics of this dispiriting loss were far easier to account for than the possible source of the general malaise.

“After 20 minutes we totally stood off them completely,” reflected a clearly frustrated Doyle afterwards.

“Fringe defence, everything. Our tackles went high, lack of line speed, not coming up together and negativity just came into the game.

“I think twice we got over four phases. England, to their credit, were getting us at the breakdown,” he added.

“We were going off our feet too early. Our support player wasn’t there. The penalties had us back in our 22 again and again.

“If we fronted up, like we did in the first 15 minutes, it wouldn’t have been that type of game.

“When we took our feet off the throttle we were gone.”

It was 2011 all over again. Back then it was the men who accounted for a major southern hemisphere scalp (Australia) before falling foul of a rival closer to home (Wales). The bitter taste was just the same.

“It’s hard to explain,” said out-half Nora Stapleton.

“Personally, I feel a bit numb. You don’t really know where that performance came from. It’s a huge contrast from the New Zealand game.

“It just wasn’t our day. As players we aren’t happy with that performance. It’s not the Irish team everybody is used to seeing. It’s not how we play and we want to make amends for that.”

Sunday’s third and fourth-placed play-off against France offers that chance. The hosts went down 18-16 to Canada in last night’s other semi-final.