Ross feels Ireland 'beat themselves' in French defeat

Ireland prop Mike Ross has said he was pleased with the performance of their scrum against France in their defeat yesterday, but thinks his side beat themselves in the game.

Ireland’s scrum fared better than expected against a French side who are used to dominating opposition packs.

Ross said: “We were pleased enough, it is still a work in progress, it’s only our second time scrummaging together as a pack, so there are positives but also things we can work on.”

“You saw what the French did to the Scottish scrum, even the Argies and the Australians in the Autumn Tests, so we could be happy enough with what we did, but we know we can improve.”

However, Declan Kidney’s men endured an agonising three-point loss to Les Bleus in their Six Nations game despite the good performance of the set-piece.

Ross said: “We felt that we probably beat ourselves with some indiscipline, you could argue even some of the penalties were harsh, so we have to look and see what we can improve.”