Joe Schmidt admitted that "dishevelled" Ireland have a serious problem to answer after their World Cup warm-up Twickenham humiliation.
Ireland were hammered 57-15 by eight try England in what was a record defeat under Schmidt.
It was a also record defeat against the Red Rose and the fourth worst defeat that Ireland have ever suffered - only bettered by routs produced by the All Blacks.
The worried Ireland boss must rouse his players for next Saturday's trip to Cardiff to face Wales but suddenly the warning signs are flashing ahead of the World Cup opener against Scotland on September 22.
“Yeah, it's a serious problem," conceded Schmidt.
"You’ve got to make sure that you can rebound from this and get a number of the different elements in the game back in order.
"There were so many aspects that we didn’t get right today that we look dishevelled out there, to be honest."
But he added: "What really matters is in four weeks time and being as competitive as we can against Scotland.
"You do get some disproportionate scores (in warm-ups), but we weren't good enough today.
"There's probably a litany of uncharacteristic errors. We didn't get our set piece going, we didn't really scavenge as well as we'd like to - we fell off 34 tackles, 21 in the first half.
"I think we were under-done, a bit heavy legged.
"I know we can get better that, I know we have to and I think the players will take responsibility to make sure they'll turn it around and build it forward.
"It's a little bit what happens at this time of the year, you do get some disproportionate scores in the lead up to the World Cup, we but we have to accept that it was nowhere near good enough and we have to be a a lot better."
There was concern over veteran lock Cian Healy leaving the pitch in the first half, but Schmidt is hopeful that he'll be okay for Japan.
"He sprained his ankle, the scan is clear, he walked from the pitch and we're hoping he's OK," said the Ireland boss.
"He’s sore now but if we can keep the swelling down and get a decent look at it hopefully he’ll be back in a shorter time-frame than Joey."
Conor Murray was also withdrawn at half-time after an accidental elbow to the head - after he initially came back on three minutes before the break having passed a HIA.
Schmidt insisted afterwards he had not intended for the Munster scrum-half to continue after the assessment.
"Conor, he passed HIA, he was fine," said Schmidt.
"We had a bit of a breakdown in communication. I wasn't going to put him back on so that was a slip-up on our behalf so we got him off."
Ireland skipper Rory Best, who had a bad day at the lineout, added: "That is not up to the standard that we set ourselves. It's hard to describe it without using a lot of profanity".
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