
Share
18th August 2017
04:16pm BST

Given the fact that Ireland rallied so well and that France were always due to be a tricky prospect, Tom Tierney's team did not cop too much flak as they left the field of play. On the contrary, they received a standing ovation from the home crowd.
Some may have tempered their criticisms of Ireland as they did not wish to be perceived as being overly critical of a female team. There are quite a few amateurs in the squad while the likes of England, New Zealand, France and Canada are very well funded.
Soft-stepping around the fact that Ireland were outclassed by France and guilty of a lot of poor play would, in fact, be doing them a disservice. They deserve to be critiqued as strongly and fairly as their male counterparts.
Unto the breach stepped former Ireland men's national team coach Eddie O'Sullivan. Before, during and after the game, O'Sullivan laid his cards out and did not spare any Irish feelings. Not long after the final whistle, he declared:
"Our backline has been shambolic in the whole tournament. Today it was worse than ever... This backline here looked like they didn't know what they were at. "They're not bad players and there is no point in saying that... [but] you have to ask the question, 'What were they trying to do?' We have an idea of what they were trying to do but they never got near the level of execution you need at this level."https://twitter.com/eirSport/status/898291380803563520 O'Sullivan deflected much of the heat away from the players, and in the likes of Sene Naoupu, Hannah Tyrrell and Alison Miller Ireland have game-breakers, while suggesting that the coaching was not up to speed. Kim Flood and Tania Rosser, two former Ireland players who were on punditry duty, initially looked taken aback by O'Sullivan's comments but appeared to be agreeing with him on many points. Harsh words but we are sure the players themselves will take some learnings from the former Ireland coach's constructive criticism.
Explore more on these topics: