ROME, – Eire stand-in coach Simon Easterby was left annoyed by his facet’s incapability to kill off the match of their 22-17 Six Nations victory over Italy in Rome on Saturday, and admits it has been a combined marketing campaign for the defending champions.
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Eire scored 4 tries for a bonus-point win that saved their hopes of a 3rd successive championship title alive for a number of hours at the very least, however Italy took them to the wire.
“It was a little bit frustrating, but five points was the priority and we got that,” Easterby advised RTE. “We didn’t get as many points as we would have liked, but credit must also go to Italy. They are a good team.
“However a variety of it was all the way down to us, there was some stress placed on us by their defence, however you’ve gotten to have the ability to take care of that and are available out the opposite facet with constructive outcomes and we did not all the time do this.”
Ireland won four of their five Six Nations fixtures in a season when Easterby is deputising for regular coach Andy Farrell, who will lead the British and Irish Lions to Australia this year.
They were not quite the dominant force of recent years, and were outclassed 42-27 by France in Dublin in their one defeat.
“I feel we have now gone ahead as a group, all you need is expertise and to construct moments and continuity,” Easterby said. “We’ve got had some new guys coming in, there’s a great deal of positives about gamers getting extra publicity.
“The Six Nations is totally different to November in terms of pressure and the opposition. I feel we have moved forward in some areas, in other areas we haven’t.
“We’ve got gained 4 out of 5 however we nonetheless really feel we are able to get higher.”
Ireland will lose more experience after this campaign with flanker Peter O’Mahony, scrumhalf Conor Murray and prop Cian Healy all retiring from international rugby.
“They’ve all been unbelievable. We’ve got recognized about it some time however you wish to ensure you mark it, which we are going to do tonight by having a number of drinks collectively,” Easterby mentioned.