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Alan Quinlan believes Ireland must not hit the \u201cpanic button\u201d after their seventh quarter-final defeat in nine World Cups.<\/p>\nAlan Quinlan believes Ireland must not hit the \u201cpanic button\u201d after their seventh quarter-final defeat in nine World Cups.<\/p>\n
The former Munster and Ireland flanker has called on incoming head coach Andy Farrell to cut out the \u201cpredictability\u201d that left Joe Schmidt\u2019s side hamstrung in 2019.<\/p>\n
Ireland swept the board in a glittering 2018, claiming a Six Nations Grand Slam before beating back-to-back world champions New Zealand for the first time ever in Dublin in November.<\/p>\n
Head coach Schmidt\u2019s team peaked with that stellar year however, slipping off the pace afterwards with the astute Kiwi\u2019s tenure ending with Saturday\u2019s 46-14 thumping by New Zealand in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Now defense coach Farrell will take the reins with former England center Mike Catt joining the set-up, and Quinlan admitted Ireland have to reinvent their attacking game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly wouldn\u2019t press the panic button and do something like move on seven or eight players,\u201d Quinlan told the PA news agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what I would try and do is bring in a number of young players. I\u2019m sure Andy Farrell will do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cA week ago everyone was saying how badly Johnny Sexton was needed against Samoa, for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there does need to be new blood, new faces, and that can bring enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve heard the word predictability a lot in the last 12 months about how Ireland play.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of teams have given Ireland compliments that even if you work out their game plan they are so efficient that you can\u2019t stop them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the game has moved on, and it\u2019s moving on again, to having more variety in breaking down defenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland have been stopped a lot in the last 12 months, so they have to start doing things differently and making it difficult for opponents to analyse them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland have decent strike runners and they probably don\u2019t get enough of the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw a master class from New Zealand in how to get the ball to your strike runners really quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s not about them scoring tries off that but it\u2019s the line breaks they make.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually setting them up one-on-one in a bit of space, and that in turn creates quick ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing and it\u2019s tough on them, but they should be criticized because they under-performed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taskmaster boss Schmidt built Ireland into a formidable machine that at its best was difficult to disrupt, but latterly opponents found ways to throw a spanner into the works.<\/p>\n
Ireland turned their 2018 Grand Slam into a frustrating third-place finish at this year\u2019s Six Nations, losing 32-20 at home to England and then 25-7 to Wales in Cardiff.<\/p>\n
Schmidt\u2019s men then suffered a record 57-15 loss to England at Twickenham in August, before slipping up 19-12 to hosts Japan during their Pool A campaign.<\/p>\n
A comfortable 27-3 win over Scotland perhaps masked some shortcomings when viewed in hindsight, and Quinlan now believes Schmidt has suffered for not finding a solution to Ireland\u2019s attacking deficiencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis defeat does taint Joe Schmidt\u2019s legacy a little bit because it\u2019s the World Cup, but I don\u2019t think it should,\u201d said Quinlan, speaking as an ITV pundit.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately it\u2019s another four-year wait to try to go past that quarter-final.<\/p>\n
“I certainly wouldn\u2019t press the panic button and do something like move on seven or eight players<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s the tag around Irish players\u2019 necks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they ever healed from the Six Nations, then losing at Twickenham and to Japan damaged confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot many teams would have been able to cope with the tempo and pace, the execution and accuracy and pace that New Zealand produced. They found an A-plus performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland lacked shape in attack and couldn\u2019t influence the game in any way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a build-up of nine months of hitting a brick wall and not being able to figure it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s hard on Joe Schmidt, because he has to take responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n