McWilliams: Performance v England a 'line in the sand' moment

Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams praised the attitude of his side, but admits there are still big improvements to be made, after their 48-0 TikTok Six Nations defeat to England.

Despite conceding eight tries and falling to a fourth consecutive defeat, the 48-point margin was far lower than expected against Simon Middleton's side, while Ireland held the Six Nations leaders scoreless for close to 30 minutes of the second half.

The frustration for Ireland was again a malfunctioning lineout, which saw them spurn two good opportunities to get in for tries during the third quarter in which they played their best rugby.

"It's still the result that we didn't want," McWilliams said of the defeat.

However the Ireland boss added that he believes his side may have turned a corner in the manner of how they stood up to England, who crossed for three late tries which put a different sheen on the scoreline.

"I think, however, if you look at the squad and how hard they worked for each other, you saw that in how we went about our business today. We still have to get better, a lot of technical and tactical work that didn't function.

"But it's maybe a line in the sand moment, I thought we saw a group of players that started to believe in each other, and we saw that in front of our eyes. When you see that, you have a chance.

"They work really hard in camp, people outside don't get a chance to see what we see; a group of players working hard for each other. That's something you'd be proud of because if you have that you always have a chance. We have to get better though, there's parts of our game there that just isn't clinical enough. We're playing against a really good England side and we had a plan, and we stuck to it for good moments of it," he