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Easy like Sunday morning reviews - Farrell's Ireland tick the boxes

Updated / Sunday, 12 Feb 2023 07:58
Ireland players celebrate the fourth try
Ireland players celebrate the fourth try

Wow. That ticked a lot of boxes.

Home win, bonus point, seeing out the game minus a host of experienced players, landing a psychological blow on France in World Cup year. Check, check, check, check.

It couldn't have gone much better. Perfect game, right, Johnny?

"Well, straight away, in term of the chances that we created," the skipper said after the match, not missing a beat in reply to the suggestion that they could do no more.

"At half-time we spoke about how we had a 50% success rate in how close we were to their line and not scoring. There were chances to get the ball into space earlier and we didn’t.

"Look, there’s plenty to work on. There always is."

But head coach Andy Farrell, who loves to see his side rise to the various challenges, the tougher the better in his mind, cut an extremely satisfied customer when he appeared in the press conference alongside the out-half a good hour after the final whistle of the 32-19 victory, in which they conceded eight penalties to France's seven.

A side note about the World Rugby rankings, where Ireland remain top. It just presents another challenge to be met.

"Well we have been asked for a couple of months now and we have not shied away from the fact it is just about us and how we can improve on our game and embracing the fact there is kind of a bigger target on our back," said Farrell, whose side enjoyed 54% possession and 64% territory.

"And that can only be good for us because there are a lot of types of different situations we can put ourselves in especially when the opposition is going to be a step up above, to normality.

"It is a great place for us to be, to test ourselves, to see whether we can deal with that type of pressure."

In contrast to the 2019 version, Ireland wear the crown lightly.

Back then, there wasn’t five minutes gone in the first Six Nations match, against England, before things started to go astray.

It feels different this time (yeah, I know, we always say that).

Uini Atonio should have been sent off.

And Farrell didn’t say it but on some level he must derive some extra satisfaction knowing that the fact that Wayne Barnes reckoned the giant prop's high hit on Rob Herring was a yellow card challenge meant that there will be no wondering 'what if they had 15 for the whole game?'

"It is what it is, the referees are paid to make those decisions," said Farrell, who confirmed Herring would go through the HIA protocols.

"Wayne and his team of four, the TMO, they couldn't get any closer to the TMO to see it as it was. You've got to trust that call and they'll look at it and do the right thing after that."

Very diplomatic but Barnes’ decision will rightly come under the spotlight this coming week. Assistant Mathew Carley’s face told its own story when Barnes talked around a red.

The head coach has been borderline obsessed about building depth so to lose Sexton and Tadhg Beirne to injury early in the second half, and to withdraw the Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony, who had put their bodies on the line, and then to witness Ross Byrne and Craig Casey completing the job would have been satisfying.

Already without Robbie Henshaw, Jamison Gibson-Park, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong, there's little more he could ask for in that department.

"I remember in [the training camp] Portugal, we got up to speed that first week and we had a training session - 15 v 15 - and the team was already picked.

"Johnny got the lads in after the session, said, 'You wouldn't know which was the Irish team that was playing at the weekend'.

"That's where we're at. Therefore, the belief is real.

"You actually get to a point when you're pleased that people get the opportunity to see where they're at.

"That's the stage we're at, we're trying to find out about each other.

"There's a few injuries, a few people pulled out but at the same time look at the strength of the bench coming on today. It's a mark of where we're at as a group."

There’s a two-week break before Ireland take on Italy in Rome. Farrell indicated that Beirne is a concern. The lock gripped his lower leg in pain after attempting a tackle.

"Not looking too great at this moment in time," said Farrell.

Sexton, meanwhile, confirmed that Atonio had landed on his leg. Sore.

World Cup talk was poo-pooed but should the teams meet in later this year in France, there’s now no reason why they won’t believe they can win.

"It's never been about that, it's about us improving as a group," said Farrell, who'll see plenty of room for improvement in the 38 missed tackles statistic.

"The realisation of where we're at, where we need to get better and how hungry we are on a daily basis to try and achieve those goals.

"Everyone talked about the performance last week [against Wales] and I talked to the guys on Wednesday for their reviews, everyone to a man thought the performance wasn't good enough.

"We'll do exactly the same as this now, we'll keep pushing the standards."

Of more immediate concern for this side is a Six Nations title, and if they say that part out loud then they're thinking of a Grand Slam.

"It’s been clear from the start, what we want to achieve," said the captain, who was clearly extremely emotional during the anthems. This was likely his last home game against Les Bleus.



"It goes unsaid but everyone knows what we want to do. We won a Triple Crown last year but we want to go better this year.

"That’s what we speak about, to keep going on a trajectory like this as opposed to 2019 when we dipped. So, to get better is to win a championship or a Grand Slam.

"How you do that is by concentrating on the next two weeks and try beat Italy away."

But back to the start. It has some competition but it goes down as the best 40 minutes of rugby this writer has seen. The 'ball in play' time came in at 46 minutes and 10 seconds, a full eight minutes longer than the average from the 2021 championship.

"It was an incredible game, wasn’t it," Sexton said of the contest in which Ireland enjoyed over one third of their possession inside the French 22.

Farrell could only agree: "The first-half was, wasn't it? Wow, it was just end-to-end stuff. We all hoped it would be like that, but it certainly was.

"Even though I thought field-position was, we controlled it pretty well in the end. It's not over until it's over, until the 78th minute anyway.

"You're thinking 'we've won a titanic game' in that respect.

"I'm hugely proud of the lads, of what they've been through over the last few weeks. They dug in hard, it meant a lot to them today and it showed."

Watch highlights and analysis of the weekend's Six Nations matches on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Against the Head from 8pm on Monday

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