Ryan admits Ireland performance 'frustrating'

Even with the caveat that this was a first outing of the season for Ireland's starting team against England yesterday, captain James Ryan didn't want to gloss over a disjointed performance.

A cursory look at the headline stats shows that Ireland ran out comfortable 29-10 five-try-to-one winners against Steve Borthwick's men but within that the hosts have plenty of room for improvement ahead of next month's World Cup.

There were 10 penalties conceded, 19 missed tackles, three lost lineouts and 12 turnovers, while a number of kicks and passes did not find their intended targets.

"A little bit frustrating, obviously we are happy to get the win, but we judge ourselves pretty harshly because we just want to get better and better," said Ryan, standing in for the suspended Johnny Sexton as skipper.

"I thought the first half was a little bit disappointing, we just didn't really get into the flow that we wanted to for a number of reasons.

"I thought the second half was better but we are still looking for that full 80-minute performance that we want to get out of this pre-season block.

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"A lot of lessons heading into Samoa next week. That will be the ambition, to put in a performance that we can be happy for the full 80 minutes."

Ireland's forwards were penalised in the first half for another obstruction penalty off a lineout - a reoccuring issue within the team and Ryan, at the time, tried to convince referee Paul Williams that it was England, who had pulled a fast one.

"His take on it was that our back lifter came too far around, so he blocked their access," he told RTÉ Sport.

"My point of view was that they spun us, so they spun the back lifter.

"They did it very effectively, so they presented a picture to him