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BBC Sport Online columnist Brian O'Driscoll was disappointed with how Ireland performed in their first international of the season.

Eddie O'Sullivan was not a happy man after our match with Romania and I cannot blame him.

We may have won comfortably but our performance was not good enough - there were far too many mistakes.

Really, Eddie did not have to say anything. The players knew themselves they had fallen short of what was required.

Okay, it was early in the season but we cannot make excuses.

At least we know where things went wrong

Brian O'Driscoll

We had been training together for several weeks so there was no reason for such a lacklustre display.

We were 32-3 ahead at half-time but I would not say the first half display was anything to write home about.

We gave the ball away needlessly on too many occasions, our ball retention was terrible.

If we played like that against a better team we would be punished - there is no doubt about that.

It was a disappointing afternoon for us, but at least we know where things went wrong.

Good atmosphere

We managed just one score in the second half and that was a pity for the crowd.

Thomond Park was not quite filled to capacity but there was a decent crowd and that created quite a good atmosphere.

I think it is a good idea to take these matches around the country to places like Limerick and Ravenhill in Belfast.

Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan was not happy with the display against Romania
Eddie O'Sullivan knows Ireland have work to do

This fixture would not have attracted a big crowd to Lansdowne Road.

We knew Romania would make life difficult for us.

Many of them play in France so were not under any illusions about what sort of side they were going to be.

They are spoilers and things got messy in the pack.

We did not get the quick ball we needed and the match could have been refereed a bit better.

Difficult place

But, having said that, we really did not make life easy for ourselves.

Certainly, we have work to do before we play Russia in a World Cup qualifying match.

It is going to be a difficult place to go and I expect Ireland will be in a no-win situation.

We will be expected to beat Russia well. I have seen some videos of the venue where we are going to play and it does not look pretty.

Yes, we expect to have Keith Wood back for that game.

But we cannot rely on him to spark something special.

We have to realise that all 15 players must combine to produce a good team performance.

That did not really happen against Romania.

I had to come off injured halfway through the game but it was just a pulled quad and at the moment I think I should be all right to play against Russia.


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