By Cathal Dervan

Romania 12 Ireland 43

Ireland finally won an autumn test when two- try hero Andrew Trimble led the 43-12 rout of Romania at Lansdowne Road on Saturday, but coach Eddie O’Sullivan admitted afterwards that a big improvement will be needed come the New Year.

O’Sullivan is a man under pressure after the defeats against New Zealand and Australia in the two weeks prior to the six try win over Romania, with even The Irish Times questioning his position.

Asked for his analysis of the Romanian game, O’Sullivan said, “What did I learn? I suppose I learned the positives - we’ve got some young players with a bit of experience now.

“Andrew Trimble has two good caps under his belt. Denis Leamy and Johnny O’Connor are coming on. Gordon D’Arcy is coming back to form after a very difficult year.

“I learned that our defence has improved week after week. Our scrummaging has improved. We are trying to play a more expansive game and hold on to the football but we have to be a lot more accurate.

“I think we’re doing the hard job of actually causing problems for the defence but we’re careless at the key moment of putting in the key passes. If we’re going to be successful we’re going to have to be more clinical in those situations.”

The game against Romania marked O’ Sullivan’s 34th win in 49 games, but the earlier losses against the All-Blacks and the Kiwis have dampened enthusiasm ahead of the Six Nations opener against Italy in February.

“It’s a question now of whether you believe the glass is half-empty or half-full. My own view is that it’s half-full, although I’m sure there’ll be disagreement about that,” added O’Sullivan.

“You can read too much into this game in the same way as you could read too much into a New Zealand match or an Australia match. You could read too much into any game this autumn. Depends at which side you come at it I suppose.

“There is room for improvement. We’re not firing on all cylinders but I never really anticipated that we’d be firing on all cylinders at this point in the season with the injury profile and the transition that’s going on.

“I think there’s a realistic expectation around the team now that we need a full deck to play with for the Six Nations. I might have hoped for better results but when you sit down and analyze it, it is what it is.”

Captain for the day David Humphreys kicked 13 points as he got his chance ahead of Ronan O’Gara and added, “In any game of international rugby when you score six tries and over 40 points, you’ve got to be reasonably satisfied.

“I thought there were some areas of our execution and accuracy where we let ourselves down but we’re reasonably happy with that result and I was delighted for Andrew Trimble that he got those two tries.

“I think from an Ulster point of view, Andrew has been our outstanding back this season. He’s a confidence type of player and hopefully this will add to it and he’ll score a few more tries for us Ulster in the next few weeks.”

Trimble scooped the man of the match award after his two try haul, then said, “It’s a great feeling to get out there in the green shirt of Ireland and score some tries. To get those two opportunities was brilliant and it was great to be able to finish them off.

“Romania have a quality front five so there was always going to be a time when we were under the cosh.”