‘Very few Wallabies would make a combined 23’ – Matt Williams claims Ireland should have won by a ‘considerable margin’
Ireland in action against the Wallabies and pundit Matt Williams.
Australian coach and outspoken pundit Matt Williams insisted that Saturday’s game between Ireland and the Wallabies should not have been that close.
Andy Farrell’s men emerged 22-19 triumphant at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday for their third consecutive victory in the Autumn Nations Series.
Those efforts against Argentina, Fiji and Australia came after they suffered a disappointing 23-13 defeat to the All Blacks earlier in the month.
However, the wins over Los Pumas and the Wallabies weren’t exactly convincing, and hinted at a side that have not progressed since their Six Nations title success.
Underperforming team
Williams feels that Ireland have vastly underperformed over the past month considering the talent at their disposal, with the ex-Waratahs and Leinster coach disappointed by what he saw from Farrell’s side on Saturday.
“We were saying that across the November series, yes, the southern hemisphere teams looked far better in the first week or so because the northern hemisphere teams haven’t played for so long, which is a very valid argument,” he told Virgin Media Sport.
“But as November has gone along, we’ve seen the northern hemisphere teams click in, get a little bit more cohesion and move forward. All except Ireland, or you can say [they did] against Fiji.
“If we pick the combined Ireland-Australian side, there’s very few Australians that make the 23 you know, there’d be all arguments about them.
“You could pick an [all] Irish side. So Ireland should beat that side on talent by a considerable margin.”
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Ireland’s next game will come in the 2025 Six Nations as they look to defend the title they won in both 2023 and 2024.
Williams believes that a huge improvement is needed but insists that there is no need for them to be fearful heading into the tournament.
“England home, France at home is always going to be hard, Scots away is going to be very hard, but there’s not a panic, they’re just not going at the same level they can,” he said.
Ireland greats on Six Nations
Rob Kearney also doesn’t believe Ireland need to worry but that they have taken a step backwards after a comparatively positive first half of the year.
“I don’t think we should judge on our November performances. We haven’t progressed on from the summer tour, or even the 2024 Six Nations,” Kearney said.
“Are we growing, are we improving as a team or are we going a little bit backwards?”
Fellow Ireland great Shane Horgan agreed with Kearney but reckons that the Irishmen can be pleased about their results, even if the performances fell below the required standard.
“He [Farrell] hits the nail on the head, it hasn’t been what they would have wanted, but they’ve had three out of three in these last three games, so there’s some element of satisfaction with that,” Horgan said.
