Disappointing.

Former Ireland international Simon Zebo has weighed in on Ireland’s disappointing 57-15 record defeat to England last weekend at Twickenham.

Zebo says Ireland basically got the “crap” beaten out of them at the hands of England, noting that it was particularly disappointing that Ireland conceded a lot of points off first phase.

But the former Munster man says let’s not forget that “England played really well” and the game “just has to go down as a bad performance” for the men in green.

“To perform like Ireland have hasn’t been hugely exciting or encouraging,” Zebo wrote in his Paddy Power column

“Against England, they seemed a bit off. You can say they were undercooked, but it’s a test match in England and in the week leading up to the game nobody would have been saying they were undercooked.

“It just has to go down as a bad performance – and let’s not forget England played really well. It was similar to the game in the Aviva during the Six Nations – they just beat the crap out of us, basically.

“It was disappointing. They were running in tries way too easily, and first-phase tries as well, which are pretty ball-breaking if you’re a forward getting up from the scrum and the next thing you have to do is get under the posts and wait for the conversion.”

But despite last Saturday’s humiliation, Zebo remains positive and the situation is “as bad as it looks from the outside” and feels Joe Schmidt “definitely prefers having the underdog tag.”

“I don’t think the situation is as bad as it looks from the outside,” he added.

“I’ve been in the camp after losses and you’re in a bubble in Carton House and your training environment. You still read the papers but nobody talks about the external noise, so whether people are saying either “Ireland are going to win the World Cup” or “Ireland won’t make it out of the group”, the players won’t be listening.

“Joe definitely prefers having the underdog tag. He tends to talk about it the odd time, so he won’t mind that. But teams like New Zealand and South Africa, against whom you’re potentially looking to face in the quarter-finals, they won’t fear Ireland at all, especially now that Felix Jones is with the Springboks. He knows Joe inside out.

“There will be a lot more hurdles to jump if we’re to have a successful campaign, so it’s about getting back on the horse this weekend, putting in a good performance and trying to regain momentum ahead of the tournament.”