The Absolutely Brutal Ireland Player Ratings Following Humiliating All Blacks Defeat
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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
