Joe Schmidt: We’re hurting now but Ireland has it all to play for

Joe Schmidt’s Monday morning review sessions may have assumed a status of their own, but there was little inclination among Ireland’s players to kickstart the process and trawl through the minutiae of defeat as they departed the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

Too raw, perhaps.

A record 11th straight win had just slipped through their fingers. So, too, a Grand Slam and, not that anyone mentioned it in the post-mortem, but a Triple Crown to boot. A costly defeat, then, no doubt about it.