SIMON EASTERBY insisted that Ireland needed to be better next week against Scotland after their “arm wrestle” with England.
Ireland beat England 27-22 in interim head coach Easterby’s first game in charge as they got their quest to win a third Six Nations crown in a row to a good start.
Two late England tries made the game close after Ireland dominated the second half to earn a bonus point with four tries having trailed 10-5 at half time.
And Easterby was delighted with the win, but believes the team need to be better in round two next Sunday in Murrayfield.
He said: “It was tough and physical and what you expect from an Ireland-England game.
“The first half, it was the first round of the Six Nations…it’s always going to be a bit of an arm wrestle so we had to find a way.
“I thought we played well in the first half, we didn’t quite get our accuracy right which is why they were leading.
“But we cleaned it up in the second half. The guys coming off the bench benefited from the work done by the guys who started, it was a tough attritional game.
“We know we need to be better next weekend. It sets us up for next week but it will be incredibly tough.”
Captain Caelan Doris was also delighted with the win, but he bemoaned giving England a losing bonus point by conceding two late tries when the game was won.
Doris said: “It’s a little bit disappointing to concede there at the end. It’s small margins when it comes to later in this tournament.
“I feel there is still so much growth in this team. We showed what we were capable of but we can better again the deeper we go into the tournament.
“But start off with a home win against England who are a quality team…the first 20 or 30 minutes of the second half is when we got the job done.”
The Ireland skipper acknowledged it was a slow start but he felt that even trailing 10-5 at half-time that they would come good.
He added: “There was a bit of a feeling towards the end of the first-half that when we were doing things our way, getting quicker ball, that holes were opening up.
“And we were capable of scoring. That came to fruition in the second-half. We just do things our way, back to basics.
“I think we showed what we’re capable some of the time definitely.”
