Andy Farrell was pleased with his side's victory over Italy having secured back-to-back wins to kick-off this Guinness Six Nations championship, however, the Ireland head coach believes that the 2024 campaign is really just starting.
Farrell’s side followed up their emphatic away win against the ever-dangerous French in Paris last weekend with another comprehensive win, dismantling Italy 36-0 at the Aviva Stadium, and are very much on course to win back-to-back championships.
However, the Ireland coach knows the difficulty of the finish that awaits his side as they must face Wales, England and Scotland in the remaining fixtures of this year’s campaign.
Ireland proved professional in their first home game of the Six Nations in what was a facile win against Italy, and while Farrell was happy with the result, he saw some room for improvement, while taking into consideration the fact that Italy proved tough to play against.
"You have to be happy with that," said Farrell, speaking to Virgin Media television after the game.
"Italy are a lot more pragmatic than they used to be, and when they are not playing rugby in their own half, it’s hard to get the ball back at times, and we had to find different ways of doing that, and we did at times.
"[We were] a bit patchy in parts, a bit clunky in parts," he added, before offering some context.
"When I say clunky, it was hard to get the ball back off them when they are just kicking the ball coming out of their own half all the time.
"But then towards the middle of the second half when we made the changes, I thought we got a bit too desperate trying to chase the game instead of working hard and making things happen like we had done.
"But we settled down as far as that was concerned, so I think that everybody will be pleased in the dressing room tonight."
The coach added that he felt the little mistakes can all contribute to preventing his side from playing at the preferred tempo.
"Stopping our flow a little bit," he said. "Getting too excited, trying to make things happen, our discipline, a couple of forward passes, falling on our backs in the breakdown, so all those bits add up to a lack of flow, but we got it back at times."
But Farrell was happy with the fact that the team kept Italy off the scoreboard, and delighted with his side’s set-piece play, which was an area that was scrutinised ahead of the start of the championship and it was another excellent outing in that department.
"The zero is the most pleasing thing, and the reason we got to the zero was because of a great defensive effort," said Farrell, speaking to RTE Sport after the game.
"And at the same time, I thought our set-piece was top drawer. Our scrum was back to its best and the line-out was backed up from a great performance last week."
Ireland appeared to come through the game relatively unscathed, however, there are concerns about full-back Hugo Keenan who picked up a knock during the game.
"Hugo got a bang on his knee, so we'll see how that goes," said Farrell. "We have two weeks to dust ourselves off.
"We have a few days off now so that will be good. We’ll be back in towards the end of the week and we’ll be bouncing into the Wales week."
When asked about championship talk, Farrell did not dodge the question, rather reminding the nation of what lies ahead in order to achieve the desired successes.
"We want to win every game, so we are not shying away from that," said Farrell. "But the tournament gets harder from here on it, it’s just started really, but we’re in a good spot. It's a good start, it’s exactly where we want to be."
And the head coach is relishing the final three weeks of the tournament as Ireland have to go up against old rivals from across the Irish Sea, while confident that their will be no complaceny in the approach to the remaining games.
"It never is and it never will be, because the lads are just too honest for that," said Farrell, when asked the complacency question.
"The Triple Crown teams are going to go at it now for the next three games. It's a good start but it’s going to get harder from here on in."
