Irish rugby captain Jamie Heaslip has admitted that Saturday’s Six Nations game with France was there for the taking. The forward felt that his side should have closed out the game, as they had the possession to do so.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said: “We would be disappointed because we dominated a large portion of the game; we worked well even in the second-half, got into their 22 and unfortunately didn’t get the scores. When they had the chance they got something from it. It’s hard to say how I feel after a draw. You’re not completely happy, but you’re not completely devastated either. We didn’t lose but we didn’t win either. There are going to be some positives and some negatives, but right now it’s a bit of a shocked dressing room.”
Head coach Declan Kidney also showed his frustration: “I’m disappointed for the players and supporters, we’re putting ourselves in good positions but not quite closing it out. We didn’t lose but we didn’t win and they probably squandered the same amount of chances as we did. On tiny margins such things exist, there was a decision against us when the scrum came up, they took a touch and go and scored.”
Despite having more possession and more territory, Ireland still failed to win, and Kidney is increasingly frustrated that his injury hit side are not making the most of their chances:
“Frustration is the word. We’re knocking on the door, but haven’t closed one (door) off, we have a lot of new guys coming into the team and it is a question of exploiting that a bit better. One or two things go your way and all of a sudden it’s a completely different picture.
“But we did give France three easy outs in the first-half, a couple of infringements and that meant then we didn’t squeeze the pressure on them. We need to learn that we have to squeeze the pressure on them. The second half, we were camped on their line once, they were camped on our line once, they scored and we didn’t score, they came away with a try and we didn’t have any points so that is the thing we need to address.”
