Battered.

Ireland crashed out of the Rugby World Cup at the quarter-finals stages once again this morning, with New Zealand inflicting a record 46-14 defeat on them.

Yes, the All Blacks were immense from start to finish – but at the same time, Ireland were absolutely crap. Simple as. No point in sugarcoating it. They didn’t exactly go out swinging.

A really disappointing end to Joe Schmidt’s tenure. He deserved better.

Anyway, here are our player ratings.

Rob Kearney – 4

Started brightly, covering his space well. But there wasn’t much else after that.

Keith Earls – 4

Didn’t have much of a chance to get into the game.

Garry Ringrose – 4

Struggled big time with New Zealand’s line speed.

Robbie Henshaw – 3

Very poor game from the Leinster centre. Shouldn’t be in Japan. Not fit and not up to speed. We know he’s so much better than this.

Jacob Stockdale – 2

Completely exposed in defence on a number of occasions. Serious questions need to be asked.

Johnny Sexton – 2

His worst game for Ireland in a very long time.

Conor Murray – 3

Kicks were aimless and struggled to control the game. Kept mouthing off to the ref after losing his head pretty early on.

Cian Healy – 3

Four carries for 0 metres made. Enough said.

Rory Best – 5

One of Ireland’s better players. The lineout was solid and one big turnover.

Tadhg Furlong – 4

Caught a number of times in defence. His attack meanwhile was non-existent.

Iain Henderson – 2

Nowhere to be seen.

James Ryan – 5

Carried hard and did his best.

Peter O’Mahony – 6

Unlucky to be penalised just before the break. A couple of big lineout takes, including a huge steal. Some big turnovers too.

Josh van der Flier – 7

Once again didn’t miss a single tackle. The best of a bad bunch.

CJ Stander – 6

Made his tackles and forced the penalty try at the end. But gobbled up in attack.

REPLACEMENTS:

Dave Kilcoyne (for Healy ’47) – 5

Tadhg Beirne (for Henderson ’49) – 5

Jordan Larmour (for Kearney ’53) – 5

Rhys Ruddock (for O’Mahony ’56) – 5

Andrew Porter (for Tadhg Furlong) – 4

Niall Scannell (for Rory Best ’61) – 5

Joey Carbery (for Johnny Sexton ’61) – 4

Luke McGrath (for Conor Murray ’74) – 5