Ellis Genge apologised to England fans for the abysmal 42-21 defeat by Ireland that has ended their Six Nations title aspirations.
Genge admits his team are unable to explain how a week after they were outfought by Scotland at Murrayfield, they repeated many of the same mistakes to allow Ireland to run riot at Allianz Stadium.
“What do you do?” Genge told BBC Sport. “Two weeks in a row conceding so many points in the first 15 minutes.
“There is no mountain to climb after that and everyone has to take a look at themselves. No one knows what the answer is right now or we would have sorted it out.
“It opened up scar tissue from last week. We have to be better at managing that period and stop turning the ball over.
“It’s brutal, professional sport because if you get five per cent wrong it’s gone. We probably believed the hype from the first week too much. We can’t let the noise in now.
“Sorry to the fans, you have been outstanding, we have let everyone down, apologies for that but I promise we will make it better. We are going to go away and work as hard as we can to go away and rectify things.”
When asked about the end of their title bid, Genge said: “I’m gutted, I wanted to win. It’s tough but that is what professional sport is and she’s a nasty mistress sometimes.”
PA
