Eddie O'Sullivan is frustrated by Ireland's poor start

"I wish I could tell you why we're not firing on all cylinders," he said.

"It's not like we haven't been trying here. We have been working on it but it just hasn't been coming together.

"If we play like that against France we'll be in for a right hiding - our current form suggests we'll find it very hard to get out of the pool."

Ireland have been heavily criticised following a 32-17 victory against Namibia in their opener and Saturday's 14-10 win over Georgia.

The French are next up in Paris on Friday night followed by a meeting with Pool D leaders Argentina on 30 September.

O'Sullivan has vowed not to change the expansive game he blames for his side's catalogue of mistakes since the World Cup began.

"It's frustrating for the supporters and I can appreciate that too. But it's equally frustrating for the players," he added.

"The form line has been fairly stagnant. Turnovers have been the bane of our lives for the past couple of weeks.

"It's much easier to sit back in the pocket and kick the ball up into the air or whack it into the corners and wait for the opposition to make mistakes.

"But we're trying to play a style of rugby which, when it works, is very successful and has served us well.

"We felt coming out of the Six Nations that we got the style right. But we've come into the World Cup and for some inexplicable reason we've tried to play that game but we've been making a bad job of it.

"It's a style of rugby that's important if you're to succeed at a higher level. But we haven't executed it well up to now and it's caused us a lot of problems."