Maybe this team have raised expectations excessively. Maybe we expect too much of them as a result. Maybe a delayed post-World Cup, post-Johnny Sexton lull was both inevitable and understandable. Maybe that World Cup was a natural peak and Ireland might never quite scale those heights again.
Whatever about all of that, Ireland’s hard-earned and well-earned 22-19 win over Australia could not have satisfied Andy Farrell’s desire for Ireland’s best performance of the Autumn Nations Series as a fitting way to celebrate Cian Healy reaching 134 caps and the 150th anniversary of the IRFU. Yet as he bade farewell as Irish head coach until next season, Farrell maintained that this team will kick on from this patchy autumnal campaign.
“Three from four, some good stuff and some not so-good stuff,” was his succinct summation. “But that’s what you want in an autumn isn’t it? A few new caps, you want to find out a little bit about yourself, of how you’re going to punch on for the competition that is the Six Nations.”
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Ah indeed, the opening game at home to England on February 1st is but nine weeks away, meaning the squad come back into camp for a pre-tournament camp in the Algarve in eight weeks’ time. But it was clear that the one which still rankled and remained the most relevant pointer was the untypical false start and opening defeat against the All Blacks.
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“I’ve just had a good chat with the players there,” said Farrell an hour or so after the full-time whistle. “We pride ourselves on being good first up and I know that the southern hemisphere’s teams are going to come in battled-hardened and Test-match fit, but coming into a top game like that New Zealand game, we let ourselves down in that regard.
“The first game that Ireland’s got in the Six Nations is England here, so they’ve got to be better coming in. It’s something that we’ve been really good at in the past, but you need to keep checking on all these things.”
Farrell also attributed much of the misfiring and overanxious first-half performance, to some degree anyway, to the additional pressure of those aforementioned landmarks. “I hype it up more than it should be probably because I want to see how we deal with it, and it doesn’t always work out well but there’s certainly a lot of learning in it.”
While Farrell didn’t go so far as to say it was a particularly good performance, he was adamant that it was a good win.
“We showed unbelievable character in my opinion, so really proud with that. That’s a good win. We’d love to win all four but all the games have brought something different and we found a way in this one so we’re delighted with that.
[ Andy Farrell ‘proud’ of hard-fought victory over AustraliaOpens in new window ]
“That’s all that matters to me, where we’re going. The story of the autumn for us is we’ve four new debutants,” he said in relation to Gus McCarthy, Thomas Clarkson, Cormac Izuchukwu and Sam Prendergast.
“We’ve four new members of staff who are settled in really well and we know where we’re going,” he added of new attack coach Andrew Goodman, Aled Walters (head of athletic performance), Dr Stuart O’Flanagan and physiotherapist Hamish MacAuley. “The future is bright for me because we have the right people on the bus, so we’re excited about that.”
Also noting the potential return of Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong and Jack Conan, Farrell maintained: “The coaching staff that we’ve got are second to none so that’s not changing. I’d expect us to kick on.”
As to whether Simon Easterby will bring aboard additional help when stepping into the breach in Farrell’s absence, he said: “There certainly is scope there if we need it, whether we need it or not that’s another story. We tend to dovetail pretty well in all types of areas and people will take responsibility not just for their own area but helping his team-mates out as well. So that’s all obviously been talked about over a long period and we’re getting there with how we’re going to go about it.”
Needless to say, Farrell is glad he didn’t follow the precedent of his predecessor as Lions head coach Warren Gatland, by beginning his sabbatical in advance of the autumn. After all, he’ll benefit from having coached against an Australian side who are “on the upward curve massively” under Joe Schmidt.
“I love coaching. The only way to get better is to keep putting yourself at the coalface,” said Farrell
He won’t be rushing headlong into his new role, preferring instead to pause for breath and think through his Lions’ role. “My way of doing things is if you get things done too early you can’t undo it. So a little bit of patience and now I’ll have a bit of time to be able to hopefully see the path as it should be.”
He will undertake a reconnaissance mission to Australia in January before returning to become a Six Nations spectator for the first time since 2016, albeit with a particularly vested interest this time, while he’s been an avid observer for this past month.
“Everyone who’s involved in top-level sport, you can’t survive unless you love the thing. It can’t be a hindrance just watching a game. We love watching all sorts of stuff so that’s something I’ve always enjoyed and that won’t change.”
