RWC post-mortem: Ireland 'too easy to score against' says defence coach Simon Easterby

The Ireland camp will be in full-on Six Nations mode next week and there'll be little time to reflect on the World Cup exit.

So, as much for the fans as anyone, and as management addressed the media for the first time since head coach Andy Farrell and his backroom team reviewed the quarter-final loss to New Zealand last Monday, the questioned was asked: why did Ireland lose to the All Blacks?

"We’ve been very good at taking opportunities and making sides pay for opportunities they have given us," defence coach Simon Easterby told RTÉ Sport when asked about the four-point loss in Paris.

"We probably didn’t fire enough shots and make the most of the opportunities in that game. And also, the defence has been strong, it was strong throughout the World Cup but we conceded three tries in a game.

"And New Zealand are one team who have the ability to score from anywhere.

"They did that but probably didn’t have to work as hard for their scores as we would have liked.

"There are lots of other things, individual work-ons etc.

"But like any game, you reflect, and sometimes you get beaten and you’ve done everything in your power. I think we were closer to that, we weren’t far off.

"We were a hair’s breadth away from scoring at the end. And fine, fine margins.

"The maul was really effective, we destroyed them at times in that area. We got on the wrong side of some refereeing decisions but at the end of the day, it was 28-24, very little in it.

"We can always look back and reflect upon how we could have done better, on both sides of the ball.

"So there’s definitely stuff we think we could have, certainly from my area, prevented New Zealand from getting momentum.

"They always managed to stay ahead of us. We needed to make sure we could stop them