England demolish Ireland as curtain comes down on disappointing Six Nations

Kidney under pressure after Twickenham collapse

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Irish rugby coach Declan Kidney

Photo by PA

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Flanker Stephen Ferris made an official complaint that he was bitten by an English opponent at Twickenham on Saturday night – but that was the only bite related to Ireland’s latest Six Nations defeat.

England took second place in the championship thanks to a 30-9 win that was fashioned by their complete dominance in the scrum.

St Patrick’s Day celebrations were well and truly muted by the dominance the English enjoyed practically from start to finish in a game of such importance.

Ireland ended the season in third place but that was scant reward for coach Declan Kidney who is now coming in for some serious criticism back home.

“That was extremely painful. You never like losing and you never like losing 30-9, especially on St Patrick’s Day against England,” said Kidney afterwards.

“All credit to England, they played well and deserved to win. I know we’re better than that, but we were well beaten.”

The loss of prop Mike Ross to an early injury contributed to Ireland’s downfall according to Kidney.

He added: “I wasn’t surprised by what happened at the scrum because Mike Ross got a crick on his neck at the first scrum and managed to play for half an hour after that.

“Tom Court came on and went valiantly, but our balance was off. That was always on the cards because we have guys who don’t have huge tight-head experience playing for Ireland at the moment.

“It’s something we’ll have to work on and bring more Irish guys through.”

Captain Rory Best was honest afterwards. He said: “There’s no real hiding from what happened. From the first scrum they were fractionally ahead of us, they took hold of us and didn’t let us breathe.

“It’s bitterly disappointing as a front row and front five. The scrum is something we pride ourselves on. The last 18 months we’ve talked about it and used it as a strength.

“We’re happy to take the pats on the back when it goes well so equally, when it goes wrong, we must stand up and take responsibility.

“Unfortunately it will be three months before we get to wear an Irish jersey and it will hurt for all that time. The error count was unacceptable.”

The IRFU have confirmed that Ferris complained to referee Nigel Owens that he had been bitten during the first-half.

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