Jamie Heaslip has responded after his lofty predictions for Ireland backfired on him as they lost to England due to a last second Marcus Smith drop goal. The loss ended Ireland's 11 match unbeaten run in the Six Nations and ended hopes of a back-to-back Grand Slam.
Heaslip was quoted during the week while on BBC's Rugby Union Daily Podcast saying England's only hope for a win was for Ireland to go down a man or two.
"I haven't seen what the bookies are saying, but in order for England to win, Ireland have to go down to like 14 or 13 players and I think England need a couple of trick plays up their sleeve."
It led to many people calling Jamie Ireland arrogant on twitter, including former Scotland International Ruaridh Jackson.
The former Leinster man wasn't alone in having high expectations for Ireland heading into this match. His former Ireland teammate Peter Stringer said that no England player would get into the Ireland 15 and Ronan O'Gara said the level of English rugby "is very, very, very low".
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Jamie Heaslip Responds As Pre-Match Comments Come Back To Bite Him
During the post match analysis on RTÉ Jacqui Hurley and Stephen Ferris both had fun telling Heaslip that he had a lot to answer for, with Ferris joking saying he "can't wait" to search his name up on Twitter.
In fairness, Jamie Heaslip took it on the chin and said he was unfazed by the prospect of a slating on Twitter and commended England's on their performance
That's a daily thing, people slate me.
I think they've great players, I mean the argument is with the way they have playing and trying to change a lot and it's not clicking for them. But if you're relying on emotional energy every time, that's not sustainable. Consistency in your performance is what you've really got to strive for. They haven't been consistent yet, they've had a great day out. but firstly, earn that right in terms of consistency
But today you cannot take it away from them, they were the better team on the day, it's a great day and they should enjoy it.
The snipes made by the former players as well as ones made by the English media clearly played a part in motivating the English players ahead of this match. Ben Earl mentioned the negativity around the England team in his post match interview, saying "apparently we're the worst England team ever. We've done pretty well for that accolade."
England got the last laugh here.
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