Eddie O’Sullivan highly critical of Ireland’s World Cup showing

What was billed as huge occasion and opportunity to put the women’s game front and centre of the public’s affection has gone horrible wrong. A stuttering campaign kicked off with narrow and unconvincing wins against Australia and Japan.

It was hoped that Ireland could circle the wagons and launch a final assault against the French and top the group. As we were all too painfully aware last week, France simply had too much for Ireland and knocked out the hosts.

The 5th-8th playoff is not where Ireland wanted to be but that is where they found themselves and today’s 36-24 loss to Australia represents a nadir for Ireland’s World Cup ambitions. A couple of late tries added a gloss to the scoreline the the performance scarcely deserved.

Speaking on Eir Sport, Eddie O’Sullivan didn’t mince his words describing the result as “disastrous”, calling Ireland’s defending “appalling”.

You can watch his dissection of Ireland’s disappointment below:

"12 points tells a big lie here, it's not a 12-point game. It's a disastrous result" – Eddie O'Sullivan. #WRWC2017 #BringIT pic.twitter.com/Gk8fFtaYH1

— eir Sport (@eirSport) August 22, 2017