Givens plans postmortem

Republic of Ireland coach Don Givens will sit his players down tomorrow morning and demand answers following their third successive defeat after Toulon Festival.

In Frejus tonight they collapsed to a 2-1 defeat against South Africa, despite taking the lead.

And with 2-0 losses to Japan and Italy preceding the latest disappointment, Ireland have just Wednesday’s match against Germany to salvage some pride from their trip to France.

‘‘It was a bad performance. I said in the dressing room that we will talk about it in the morning,’’ said Givens. ‘‘We couldn’t control the ball, we couldn’t pass. We were rubbish.’’

Many of Givens’s Under-21 squad were in the Irish Under-16 team who won the European Championship four years ago.

He does not believe they have become bad players since that win, and is surprised they are point-less at this stage.

‘‘There were too many individual performances not up to scratch today and against a team like South Africa, who aren’t the best in the world, we weren’t up to scratch,’’ added Givens.

‘‘They’re not freezing because it is not the World Cup, but they are doing something wrong. Technically they are very good. But they’re a shadow of the team that they are capable of being.’’

Next opponents Germany can still reach the Festival final, but they need a glut of goals against the Irish to stand any chance.

The Germans were 2-1 winners over a volatile Italy team today and have found form after a stuttering start.

Givens will make changes for the match and want to see a more focused Ireland.

‘‘I can’t think that there was any complacency,’’ he said. ‘‘But we will need a definite change of attitude and we’ll see what comes out of the discussion tomorrow.’’