Matt Williams: Where Ireland are ‘well below elite standards’ and the ‘hard fact’ Andy Farrell’s side must face
Ireland fly-half Sam Prendergast and an inset of Matt Williams.
Former Scotland head coach Matt Williams has slammed Ireland’s Nations Championship performances as Andy Farrell’s men were ‘publicly examined and exposed’ at Eden Park.
Ireland won two of their three matches in July, defeating Australia and Japan before falling to a defeat at the hands of the All Blacks in Auckland in their last fixture.
While many have argued that the 40-21 result could have been different had Quinn Tupaea been yellow-carded for his deliberate knock-on and Luke Jacobson had his sin-binning upgraded to a 20-minute red, Williams is not buying any of the excuses and believes that the side was completely outplayed by Dave Rennie’s charges.
All Blacks outclassed Andy Farrell’s men
That completed the hat-trick of ‘highly inaccurate’ performances from the men in green, according to the ex-Leinster boss who stuck to form and did not hold back in his assessment of Ireland’s July.
“Disregard the flimsy excuses doing the rounds. Ireland were well and truly beaten by a superior and powerfully focused New Zealand,” Williams wrote in the Irish Times before diving into the statistics of the match.
He continued: “Ireland turned over possession a staggering 18 times. Meaning that against one of the best attacking systems in the world, Ireland gave them 18 extra possessions. Decisively, Ireland then missed a whopping 35 tackles. It is impossible to defeat any tier-one nation, let alone New Zealand at Eden Park, with those stats.
“Against both Australia and New Zealand, Ireland’s defensive intensity was well below elite standards.”
Ireland’s long run of below-par performances
Williams pinned the defeat on the plethora of errors that the Irish made, including Stuart McCloskey’s pass to no one that was ultimately scooped up by Will Jordan who scored. However, those mistakes weren’t limited to that evening at Eden Park as Ireland were similarly wasteful against Australia but still emerged 33-31 victors.
“In big matches, the team that make the least mistakes win. Ireland’s mountain of errors and missed tackles allowed the Kiwis to impose their game plan on Ireland. New Zealand applied huge pressure to Ireland and, to state a hard fact, the green team cracked,” he wrote.
Adding: “In the Nations Championship, Ireland have put in three highly inaccurate performances. If the Wallabies kickers, Ben Donaldson and Carter Gordon, had landed any of their four missed attempts at goal in Sydney, then the last few weeks would have been an Irish disaster. Ireland did not win that test in Sydney, Australia lost it. In Tokyo, France showed how a top-class international team should demolish Japan. And in Auckland Ireland were a class below.
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“As we look back on Ireland’s 2025-26 season, the excellent performance at Twickenham in this year’s Six Nations now appears to be the exception, in what has been a long run of below-par performances.
“When analysing the season, we have to take into consideration that the Lions tour has taken a grave toll on the Irish players. While the past year has been exceedingly demanding, no matter the reasons, Ireland’s performances have diminished.”
