\n<\/p>\n
After seven dynamic caps off the bench, 21-year-old back rower Henry Pollock finally gained a first Test start.<\/p>\n
The idea was his energy would help avoid a repeat of last week when Scotland blitzed England in the opening 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
“What do you do? Two weeks in a row conceding so many points in the first 15 minutes,” prop forward Ellis Genge told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n
“Everyone has to take a look at themselves. No-one knows what the answer is right now or we would have sorted it out.<\/p>\n
“It opened up scar tissue from last week – we have to be better at managing that period and stop turning the ball over.<\/p>\n
“It’s brutal, professional sport because if you get 5% wrong it’s gone. We probably believed the hype from the first week too much. We can’t let the noise in now.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
England found themselves deep in Ireland’s 22 on multiple occasions but lacked any clinical edge, making 14 handling errors in the game.<\/p>\n
George Ford also missed touch with a penalty that could have put the hosts in a scoring position.<\/p>\n
“As players, senior players and the leadership team we have to take responsibility for not starting the game right,” said Itoje.<\/p>\n
“It was just our inaccuracy. We turned the ball over too much, and when we did get into positions to hurt Ireland we were not accurate and then gave ourselves a mountain to climb.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n