GOING PACK TO BASICS

Kearney: England bullied and beat Ireland up.. Farrell will have to sort it for visit of the Scots

ROB KEARNEY says Ireland were “bullied and beaten up” by England – and must still learn to bring their best against the best.

Kearney was in Twickenham on Saturday for the last-gasp defeat for Andy Farrell’s side.

The much-decorated former fullback (inset) will return to the Virgin Media studio for what, he predicts, will be the winning Ireland performance that secures back to back Six Nations titles.

However Kearney does expect Scotland to show up after their damaging defeat in Rome.

“The one team you don’t want coming to Dublin after a game like that is probably Scotland because you never know what they’re going to do,” he said.

“They’ve got the ability to score 30 points on their day, they’ll throw the kitchen sink at us and there won’t be an ounce of fear in them coming here.

“I don’t think that defeat has done much damage to the

Scots because that’s what the Scots are like.

“They can have the worst performance and within a week produce their best performance.

“Consistency with Scotland doesn’t go hand in hand but they’re a team that you need to be always wary of.”

Ireland lived on their nerves in last year’s Grand Slam winning game against England and Kearney is worried that Saturday’s setback will see a repeat in this championship finale.

“When you lose a game there’s always a seed of doubt that reappears back in your head,” he commented.

“The first few minutes will be telling as to what level Ireland are at, mentality wise. If they can just get themselves into the game nice and early, they should pull away.”

Indeed, Kearney is confident that Ireland will bounce back after their 23-22 defeat.

The two-time Grand Slam and six-time Six Nations winner has high praise for England but is very critical of Ireland’s efforts after blowing the chance of setting a new championship record of 12 successive wins.

“What can we learn? We’re not a

team that can play at 70 per cent and beat the opposition,” Kearney stated.

“There were elements that let us down. Our pack got bullied – we were beaten up, we didn’t give our backs enough clean setpiece ball.

“Our discipline was poor – that’s not something we associate with this team – and we managed the last few minutes poorly.

“If you are drawing comparisons with that World

Cup quarterfinal, we didn’t have one player on the

Irish team that had a world-class performance. New

Zealand had five or six.

“We didn’t have one of those performances for Ireland, last weekend or in the quarterfinal.

“England had a lot of guys who had really excellent games.”