Bernard Jackman ‘worried for the future’ after ‘sobering’ result hints at issues in ‘much-lauded’ aspect of Ireland’s improvement
Ireland side in a huddle and former hooker Bernard Jackman.
Former Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman has been left concerned after a difficult final weekend for Irish rugby in the Six Nations.
Simon Easterby’s side completed their campaign with an unconvincing 22-17 victory over Italy, seven days after their title challenge was effectively ended by France.
Ireland were going for an unprecedented three-peat but those hopes were well and truly extinguished by Les Bleus in a staggering demolition at the Aviva Stadium in Round Four.
Age-grade failure
However, what made the conclusion of the senior Six Nations even more galling was Ireland’s display in the age-grade equivalent.
Their U20s were once the standard-bearers and were unbeaten in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions, winning two Grand Slams, but they finished 2025 with the Wooden Spoon.
“I can’t help but feel a little bit subdued by what played out on the pitch,” Jackman wrote in his Irish Independent column.
“To be fair it’s not all due to the senior team. Seeing our Under-20s pick up a wooden spoon on Friday night in Treviso was sobering and worrying for the future. Our much-lauded player development pathway may have a bit of dirt in the diesel tank.
“Not for one second did I expect that we would be hanging on in the closing minutes hoping that one of the elusive Italian backs didn’t get the ball with a bit of space because they had the pace to worry us from deep.
“We had the four-try bonus point in the bag but losing this game would have been a major setback for this team. Realistically we knew the Championship was probably gone, but losing to Italy should not be on the menu.”
Jackman’s thoughts then revolved around where it went wrong for Easterby’s men. While it was certainly not a catastrophic Six Nations – four victories out of five is a testament to that – it did end in disappointment for the 2023 and 2024 champions.
Ireland’s poor passing and skills
“We have no divine right to win any Test match but rugby is a complex game with lots of moments that can fall in your favour or against,” he wrote.
“The Italians came in on the back of having conceded 18 tries over four games so it was hard to see how they could shore up that weakness in a week.
“But to their credit, they frustrated Ireland with a much better defensive performance. But I think we let them defend well with a lot of handling errors at key times.
“Our general passing accuracy and skills have been off for a while and all tournament there have been too many passes slightly behind the receiver which kills momentum.
“The chat all week was that we were outpowered and outpaced by France. We may never be the biggest or the quickest team yet something that is less aligned to genetics is our ability to implement a game plan around fast and accurate ball movement and we have shown in the past that we can be world leaders in this area and we must get back to that.”
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