Ireland didn't fire enough shots against England - Peat

Former Ireland international Lindsay Peat said she was "frustrated" that Ireland "didn't fire enough shots" in their 33-12 Women's Six Nations defeat by England.

Scott Bemand's side made a slow start against the world champions in front of a record Women's Six Nations crowd of 77,120 at Allianz Stadium and trailed 21-0 at half-time.

They responded well in the second half and got on the board courtesy of tries from Anna McGann and Erin King, but Peat was disappointed that they did not threaten more against an England side that were far from their sparkling best.

"I'm frustrated and I say I speak for a lot of players and the management team, it's a level of frustration because we didn't fire enough shots and showcase a consistency. There were small glimpses, two great tries but the story of being too little too late," Peat told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.

"England, world champions and you can forgive them for having a little bit of a hangover, they've been superstars. They looked a little bit out of sorts, but we kept giving them the ball back.

"On paper, 33-12 is a really good score considering it was 49-5 and 88-10 the years before. On paper, huge improvement against the world champions but really, watching the game, I've been left frustrated personally."

Ireland came into the Six Nations hoping to atone for a World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of France in September and prove they can compete against the big sides.

Peat felt that Ireland's performance served to highlight that the gap between Bemand's side, who are ranked fifth in the world, and those above them is still great.

"When teams have momentum and rhythm they can do big things and this Irish team didn't get into their rhythm or build momentum. Instead of cutting England's rhythm, they decided to give the ball back and you just can't do that," she added.

"We talk about cutting the gap between us and the top four, we're sitting fifth in the world rankings and it's a good reflection of where teams are at with the World Cup, the top four were all semi-finalists.

"We can talk about missed opportunities against France, but for me today was going to be about what we learnt from that quarter-final and unfortunately we didn't see anything really."

The 38-capped prop also felt that Ireland "had no plan B" despite their errant kicking game which bore little fruit against England.

"We need a kicking game because we're not a huge team, so it's important to get territory and it was always going to be territory and possession that was going to make a dent in this fixture but we didn't do it. We kicked wrong at times.

"Frustration comes from knowing the potential of this team and what we've seen in the World Cup. I thought we'd see another layer on the trajectory we've been talking about."

Peat was pleased that Ireland managed to get a foothold with a "much better" second half and hopes they can take aspects of their attacking display into their home game against Italy next week at the Dexcom Stadium in Galway.

"Anna McGann's try was unbelievable, the strength, you could forgive her for being put out as she was hit hard by Moloney-Macdonald, she held her feet, did a bit of a spin basketball move and kept control of the ball and put it down.

"Erin King grew into the game, so glad to see her back and she got some really lovely turnovers and a great try to finish off.

"They're small snippets and if we could put them together in a longer period we'd be having a different conversation."