Rob Kearney: ‘Sometimes you have to eat humble pie, take it on the chin’

Rob Kearney pulled no punches in the aftermath of Ireland’s Murrayfield defeat and he was expecting a similar approach when Joe Schmidt and his coaching team get stuck into the players at today’s match review session.

Full-back Kearney described his team as chasing Scottish shadows during an awful first-half performance on Saturday, as Ireland fell behind 21-5 after half an hour and reached the interval 21-8 in arrears to the dark blues.

There was further misery when after a spirited comeback to nudge Ireland in front at 22-21 with 18 minutes to go, the visitors once again pressed the button marked self-destruct, blowing try-scoring chances to secure victory and conceding sloppy penalties to allow Scotland to go back in front and win 27-22.