Eddie Jones admitted he could have no complaints following England’s defeat in Dublin but remains confident his side will rediscover their consistency.
The Red Rose went down 32-18 at the Aviva Stadium to complete an unwanted clean sweep of losing to all three of their rival home nations in the 2021 Championship.
The defeat means the reigning champions are all but certain to finish fifth in this year’s table and the Australian was left to rue a costly period towards the end of the first half which saw Ireland score two match-defining tries.
“We started well, the first 20 minutes were nip and tuck and a couple of things went well,” Jones said.
“We allowed that to get to us and dropped our intensity off. Ireland took advantage of that and established a winning lead.
“Credit to my team – they are honest, they work hard, they came back into the game and fought hard when things were difficult. But congratulations to Ireland, they were too good on the day.
“We thought they’d come pretty hard at us through the front door. Given the previous results between the teams, we knew they wanted to settle the physical stakes so we thought they’d come hard and kick a lot, which they did very well.
“They got their tactics right and the scoreboard indicates that.”
Impressive Ireland end in style with comfortable win over England
England had won the last four meetings against the Men in Green, including a memorable 32-20 triumph on their last Championship visit to Dublin.
The tables were turned on this occasion, however, as scores from Keith Earls and Jack Conan were added to by 22 points from the boot of Johnny Sexton to put the hosts in the driving seat.
England scored twice themselves through Ben Youngs and Jonny May – both of which came following a 63rd-minute red card for Bundee Aki – but never seriously threatened a fightback as they were unable to build on last weekend’s impressive victory over France.
Highlights: Ireland v England
“The main thing we’re missing at the moment is consistency of performance,” Jones added.
“We showed against France we can play at a very high level and we’ve just lost that consistency. That sometimes happens to a team and we’re experiencing that now. But we’ll get that back.
“There were a lot of positive things in the game. We still know where we’re going and as disappointed as I am about the result, we’ll continue in a positive fashion.”
