Bug.

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has revealed a number of the Ireland players struggled this week with a bug, disrupting their preparations ahead of their clash with Wales yesterday.

The men in green were well beaten by Wales yesterday, and struggled throughout the game. And while Gatland’s men never looked like they were going to lose – perhaps the disruption during the week explains why Ireland were so bad.

“We had a couple of guys who were struggling, who had a bug. They were isolated and you lose a bit of that continuity.” Schmidt said.

The Ireland boss also said the six-day turnaround did them no favours ahead of such a big Test match.

“The six-day turnaround is also a little bit complicated.” Schmidt added

The first two or three days of the week are recovery. Got a good hit-out on Thursday really. Is it as much preparation as you’d like? It’s not but at the same time that’s the nature of the draw.”

There’s no doubt Ireland were beaten by the better team yesterday. But perhaps we should consider these factors before we completely throw them under the bus. You don’t become a bad team overnight.