'Some of the those tackles were absolutely appalling'

The Ireland Women’s team’s 88-10 hammering at the hands of England in the Women’s Six Nations has been described as unacceptable by commentators.

It’s even worse than the 48-0 drubbing the women in green received in the same fixture in last season, suggesting the gap is growing between the sides.

The performance has sparked its fair share of criticism.

Ireland struggled defensively throughout the game, missing 61 tackles which translated into a poor 71 percent tackle completion rate. This meant they failed to make a successful tackle one out of every five attempts.

England Women’s coach John Mitchell on the Red Roses squad

England Women’s coach John Mitchell on the Red Roses squad

The contrast England demonstrated superior skill and execution, making 24 linebreaks and 18 offloads while gaining 1,067 valuable metres out of their total 1,547 metres carried. The Red Roses capitalized on Ireland’s sloppiness, amassing 14 tries in front of a record crowd of 48,778 spectators. Standout performances came from Abby Dow and Ellie Kildunne, each completing hat-tricks. Megan Jones and Jess Breach also made significant contributions with two tries apiece.

Kildunne in particular dazzled with her athleticism and sharp attacking skills being a constant threat throughout the game. Her ability to break from deep positions was highlighted by a cunning dummy kick that turned defensive play into attack.

Despite the overwhelming scoreline, Ireland managed a penalty try reflecting their persistent if ineffective effort, but it wasn’t enough to put any respectability on the scoreline.

Former Ireland Women’s internationals speaking on Virgin Sport did their best not to put the boot into the Irish side, but it proved an almost impossible task given the dire nature of their defending.

Former Ireland outside back Eimear Considine said: “They will be really working hard on tackling this week. Individually, they’ll be wanting to make 100 tackles before heading into that Scotland game… That was below the standard of any of those girls and they will all think that and I know they will think that.”

Former Ireland prop and Six Nations winner Fiona Hayes was even more direct in her appraisal of the performance.

“Let’s be honest, some of those tackles were absolutely appalling,” Hayes said after the bloodbath. “If a player can say, that won’t happen to me next week, I promise you I’m going to do better, because sometimes when you’re in the heat of battle you can’t change that.”

Former outside centre Jenny Murphy said a lot of players needed to ‘look in the mirror’.

“Speaking about honesty, a lot of players are going to have to look in the mirror. Some of the best feedback and toughest feedback you get is not from your coach, but it’s from your teammates. If they are a close-knit team that is driving to be better, then there are certain standards that are to be expected.

“I imagine you see some of the leadership come down on some of those players, saying ‘This is what is expected of you. This is what you need to work on’…In some areas, it was just not good enough.”