Ireland have sunk to a demoralising, and championship-losing defeat to Wales. With the roof closed, the Principality Stadium was portrayed as a pressure-cooker ahead of the game, but by the end, it felt like a tomb. You can read our player ratings from the defeat here.
Afterward, the RTE panel of Ronan O'Gara, Eddie O'Sullivan, and Shane Horgan were entrusted with the task of picking through Ireland's Six Nations carcass.
O'Sullivan and O'Gara bemoaned Ireland's lack of goalkicking: the final penalty count read 10-4 in Ireland's favour, yet we kicked just three points. O'Gara seemed to lay some of the blame for this at the feet of captain Rory Best:
I think it's not the lineout that's the problem, I think that it's the decision before that. The lads [Jackson and Sexton] have kicked eighteen penalties in a row between them.
For me, if that's an O'Driscoll or an O'Connell, he doesn't even give the kicker an option. He doesn't even ask, he just goes...do it. There'll be times away from home, at 5-3, and the boys are looking at me, asking 'ROG, do you fancy it?' I'd only love to kick to the corner to get out of it!
But there's times when you're away from home, you have to build a score.
Elsewhere, O'Gara said that Wales were comfortable in the game, that he never truly felt that it was a game they were going to lose. Watch it all below.
Ronan O'Gara Analysis
The panel discuss Ireland's inability to convert at the crucial moments and their "lack of confidence" #rterugby pic.twitter.com/NqDQ03ZeHp
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) March 10, 2017
