Andy Farrell says Ireland must address the psychological shortcomings that left them “frustrated” during Dublin’s defeat to New Zealand.
The Six Nations champions suffered a disappointing 23-13 defeat in their Autumn Nations Series opener after being penalized for numerous errors and repeated offences.
An investigation into Friday evening’s disappointing display at the much-anticipated Aviva Stadium is set to begin when the players return to camp on Sunday.
Coach Farrell admitted there was significant room for improvement ahead of games against Argentina, Fiji and Australia.
Ireland’s 19-game winning streak was ended by New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium.
“It’s not right to desperately chase your tail when you make a mistake, whether it’s a penalty kick or a dropped ball, and then that mistake combines with another mistake and suddenly you lose field position and you score. Get behind it.” Farrell said.
“We’ve done that a few times. We’ve got to change our mindset when it comes to that and get back to neutral and get the ball back the way we want to.”
“We got a little too desperate, and as a result we lacked the energy and precision we needed.”
Ireland need to regroup ahead of Argentina’s visit to Dublin on Friday.
New Zealand’s deserved win, secured by six Damian McKenzie penalties and a Will Jordan try, halted Ireland’s run of 19 consecutive wins on home soil.
It also added to the host nation’s misery after the All Blacks won 28-24 in the quarter-finals of last year’s World Cup in France.
“We just keep going,” Farrell said. “We have to do that.
“We need to find a solution as quickly as possible, because Argentina have a hungry team who are playing really good rugby at the moment.
“We’ll have to get back on our horses and start over, won’t we?”
Josh van der Flier scored Ireland’s only try on a disappointing night against New Zealand.
With New Zealand center Jordie Barrett in the sin box following a high tackle on Garry Ringrose, Josh van der Flier’s try briefly threatened to turn a sloppy contest in Ireland’s favour.
But Farrell’s men paid dearly as they committed 21 handling errors, conceded 13 penalties, missed 30 tackles and were repeatedly second in turnovers, rucks and lineouts.
Farrell said of the high penalty numbers, “We may get some answers in terms of clarification on some of them, but it doesn’t matter whether they’re wrong or right.”
“But we had to hold ourselves back a bit.”
New Zealand’s win follows a 24-22 win over England at Twickenham last weekend.
Following his success, New Zealand center Rieko Ioane has decided to spark a simmering feud with former Ireland captain Johnny Sexton.
The pair clashed after the All Blacks’ World Cup win in Paris and Sexton detailed the exchange in his recently released autobiography.
“Put that in the book,” Ioane posted on Instagram alongside a photo of him leading a haka.
