Jonny Sexton admits Ireland 'unbelievably frustrated' by Six Nations form
Wednesday 27 February 2019 12:40, UK
Fly-half Jonathan Sexton admits Ireland are "unbelievably frustrated" after failing to meet expectations so far in this year's Six Nations.
Grand slam winners in 2018, Ireland are third in the table after a first-round loss to England followed by unconvincing wins over Scotland and Italy.
Head coach Joe Schmidt admitted earlier this week Ireland are "a bit broken by the fallout from the England game".
Sexton, the 2018 World Player of the Year, was taken off after just 24 minutes against the Scots after being on the receiving end of a couple of big hits.
He again cut a frustrated in Rome as Ireland, despite winning with a bonus point, committing a high number of handling errors.
"We just have to say that we haven't been good enough yet," Sexton told Virgin Media One broadcast on Wednesday.
"(We're) unbelievably frustrated. How can you not be when you're doing as good a preparation as you did last year, you're training as well as you did last year? You're doing everything right and things aren't just clicking. No one cares more than us."
Sexton said last year's clean-sweep was achieved with "a little bit of luck along the way" that he felt has been missing this year.
"Probably didn't get the bounce of those balls against England and now we're trying to find that sort of performance that we need to revive us again and get us going," he said.
Ireland host France in the next round on March 10 before finishing the campaign with a trip to currently unbeaten Wales on March 16.
