Andy Farrell has challenged his Ireland team to show their true selves against Australia tomorrow night (8.10pm).
Ireland failed to fire in their opening defeat to New Zealand, while earlier this week prop Thomas Clarkson described their 41-10 win over Japan as "underwhelming".
A ten-point defeat, after playing with 14 players for 20 minutes and without the in-form Tadhg Beirne for almost the entire All Blacks game, and a six-try rout of Japan might represent a decent return for some teams, but Farrell is demanding more.
He had felt his team, the 2023 and 2024 Six Nations champions, were well prepared to take on New Zealand, while he admitted he didn’t get the response he wanted against the Brave Blossoms.
Andy Farrell says Ireland are expecting a backlash from a wounded Wallabies side #RTERugby #RTESport pic.twitter.com/3wPCs5aerh
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 13, 2025
"There's obviously different learnings from both games and there's different teams that took the field on both given days," Farrell said after making nine changes to his starting XV to face a Wallabies side who lost to Italy last weekend.
"But to put it briefly, we're expecting a better performance from ourselves.
"Hopefully, the best one of the season so far.
"Because it's going to be needed against a side that's very talented and a little bit wounded and that makes them a little bit more dangerous, I would have thought."
He added: "[Am I] too honest and blunt [with the media]? I feel like I am sometimes.
"I always think if you’re not being honest, how are you helping people to grow.
"I think you have to say it is as it is, otherwise, people ultimately don’t trust you as much.
"We’re always trying to chase some potential, probably that we don’t realise ourselves really, and that’s pretty exciting for us.
"So we’ve got to hold ourselves accountable to do that otherwise what’s the point."
"We always say that preparation is absolutely key and how it transfers.
"It doesn’t always but you’d rather it be that way, so that we can keep on pushing our own standards.
"How you deal with the pressure of the live moments that’s international rugby is different gravy to what it is on the training pitch.
"Again, there’s been a determined bunch this week, it hasn’t been perfect for sure, with the weather that’s been around but a pretty determined bunch to put it on the field this week."
In addition to the nine personnel changes, captain Caelan Doris gets a rare start at 7 to accommodate number 8 Jack Conan, while Mack Hansen is named at full-back for the first time in the Test arena.
He said: "Different personnel obviously sparks something different and we’ve seen what those types of players have done in those positions before within training and we’ve been pretty excited about it, so I think it’s nice growth for us.
"Obviously [the team] was freshened up last week but part of last week was, you know, I think when we made a few errors we went in on ourselves a little bit.
"And some players would have seen last week as a big opportunity and there’s a little bit of desperation that comes with that and if it’s not going too well you become a little bit suppressed and all that.
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"So there’s learnings from that and if you look at the lads who you would think has got an opportunity this week as far as Test level, hopefully they’ve learned the lessons from what the team went through last week."
Further probed on the assertion that the players get "suppressed" during the games, he said: "We all [sit down and talk it out], because it’s tough to get out of your own way.
"When something’s gone wrong, it’s tough when you get a call wrong, you drop a ball, you’ve not committed to something that you’ve seen, you know that everyone knows, and it’s just human nature but we try our best to try and curb that and try and get on with what’s in front of us.
"There is always going to be ups and downs with that but it’s something we’ll continue to do, it’s always going to be a factor in rugby."
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