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Rugby Union

Ashton: We were outplayed

25/02/2007

England head coach Brian Ashton has admitted that his side were outplayed by Ireland in their record loss at Croke Park in the Six Nations yesterday.

Ireland were dominant throughout the game and won 43-13, their biggest ever winning margin against England.

Ashton said that the England players did not match up to their Irish counterparts in any way and that their decision-making was poor.

He said: "We were beaten all over the field, there's no doubt about that. We knew it would be a difficult game but hoped to gain parity or dominance in some areas of the pitch.

"But we were stuffed and we have to take it on the chin. We were outplayed by the better side."

Ireland were able to play the majority of the game in England territory and Ashton felt that the home side was handed this advantage through poor discipline from his players.

He said: "Some of our decision-making in the first 20 minutes of the game was poor in terms of what we'd said we were going to do, and we didn't."

Ashton said the blame could not be placed on any one player in particular, but that he would review the game and make any necessary changes ahead of their next Six Nations match.

"You look round the whole 15 of our players today and they didn't match up to international rugby," Ashton concluded.

The England coach admitted that one of his main concerns was the way his side had been physically dominated by the Irish pack.

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