Ireland ‘didn’t get into their flow’ in Black Ferns loss

Aoife Dalton, the centre of Ireland, claimed that her side failed to “capitalize” opportunities when facing New Zealand in Brighton, where they lost 40-0 to the defending world champions.

The Black Ferns won Pool C with a hat-trick of tries, scoring only one more than that.

Dalton was angry with Ireland’s inability to appear on the scoreboard despite constant pressure during certain periods as they conceded their first defeat of the tournament.

We probably leaked two bad tries at the end, which probably makes it appear the game isn’t really what it is,” Dalton told Nicola McCarthy of BBC Sport NI.

Dalton was aware that New Zealand would come out firing in response to the Irish’s humiliating defeat in WXV1 last year.

And while Ireland put on some good pressure at half-time, the Black Ferns fought back 19-0 with a combination of fundamental errors and New Zealand’s leadership.

As New Zealand’s defense remained strong before scoring two late scores of their own to finish the scoreboard, Scott Bemand’s side bravely fought back in the second half, but once more they fell short of turning their possession into tries.

They are now under your posts a few phases later because we probably couldn’t get into our flow and made one attack or defense mistake, Dalton continued.

We probably left out two scores, but thanks to them, they were very successful in defending, and they turned us over several times in our own 22, so we had to be more sharp and tidy there.

When we didn’t need to, we instead invited them on. We couldn’t create momentum, and we pressured Dannah O’Brien, giving her no room to play.

Ireland will face France in Exeter, a team that defeated them by 12 points in the Six Nations this year, in the quarter-final.

With the France game looming and Edel McMahon and Stacey Flood both recovering from injuries in Brighton, Dalton thinks her team will recover quickly from the defeat.

You just have to wash your wounds and go again, you won’t feel sorry for yourself.