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Five takeaways from the Ireland win over France in the Six Nations
By Liam Heagney
Hype is a word seemingly not in the vocabulary of Andy Farrell, which is a pity as it would be great for the sport if he started playing up this mighty progress of Ireland with him at the helm. Two years ago he was accused of being asleep at the wheel. The Irish had lost to France in a dispiriting fashion in Dublin and the optics were concerning for the head coach just 10 games into his reign.
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The attack was non-existent, assistant Mike Catt failing to make any strides forward. The defence, instructed by Simon Easterby, had multiple crossed wires. Even the pack was just muddling along, with forwards coach Paul O’Connell having only joined the management ticket.
That behind-closed-doors setback against the French left Ireland zero from two, a championship blank that hadn’t been experienced since 1998. Brian Ashton paid for that particular stalled start with his resignation, paving the way for a then-unknown Warren Gatland to pick up the pieces.
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This time around, the coach wasn’t for budging and just look at the splendid flourish that has since materialised now that Farrell has finally got his head around head coaching and accepted that he needed to forge his own path and stop trying to reheat what he inherited from Joe Schmidt.
Nineteen wins in 21 games since then is an epic transformation. So too their world ranking trajectory from a desultory sixth to a much-deserved first. The assistants have been empowered, the players hugely upskilled, yet Farrell keeps playing it cool, refusing to cheerlead in a year where they are tipped to win the Six Nations and then achieve like never before at the World Cup.
“I know it is boring for young guys,” he said, playing spoilsport at his post-game media briefing when asked about the giddy hype now surrounding Ireland. “But we are just onto the next one, we are. Because the same points are available against Italy (as against France) and we have got to make sure that we learn our lessons.
“It’s just about us improving as a group, a realisation of where we were at and where we need to get better and how hungry we are on daily basis to try and achieve those goals. Everyone talked about the performance last week (against Wales), but I asked the guys on Wednesday after all the reviews, ‘What do you think?’
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“To a man, everyone thought that the performance wasn’t good enough. We’ll do exactly the same with this one [the French review] and we will keep pushing the standards. That is all that matters to us really.”
Red, not yellow
If there is one thing that has grated about Irish rugby in recent years, it’s the hesitancy to publicly call out foul play. In a climate where safety is such a hot topic, X-rated incidents should be candidly commented on rather than play the diplomat.
We had it in 2016 when the All Blacks repeatedly went in high on Ireland in Dublin a fortnight after the famous Irish win in Chicago. Schmidt disappointingly played down the controversy rather than call out the foul play.
It was similar with regard to Farrell’s vanilla response about the gruesome Uini Atonio collision that put Rob Herring out of the game. “The referees are paid to make those decisions. Wayne (Barnes) and his team of four, they couldn’t get any closer to the big screen to see it as it was. You have got to trust that call,” shrugged Farrell, sidestepping the invitation to openly say it should have been a red-carded foul, which it was.
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If there wasn’t a high degree of danger in the collision, as alleged by Barnes in his TMO review, then why was Herring gone for a head injury assessment that he failed? Atonio’s tackle tech, with no dip in height or a wrap of the right arm as his right shoulder made head contact, was criminally poor.
It should have been more heavily punished by the officials… and should have merited a far tougher comment from Farrell in the aftermath. When it comes to player safety, leniency of any kind isn’t acceptable.
Highlights from an ASTONISHING encounter between Ireland and France. #GuinnessSixNations | #IREvFRA pic.twitter.com/u2LsLHdfIz
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 11, 2023
Attacking the imagination
It’s said that defence wins championships but this Ireland team appears to be on a mission to show that attack is the most decisive ingredient. Their haul against the Welsh was more grunt than finesse, with three tries by the forwards coming from pick-and-go at the line to add to a James Lowe intercept.
The variety in their scores on Saturday, however, fired the imagination. Yes, there was still grunt evident in the Andrew Porter burrow, but the trick play from the goalline restart for the Hugo Keenan score, the acrobatics of Lowe at the corner, and the quick hands to put in Garry Ringrose for the clincher were all emblematic of an attack bustling with creativity.
“Lovely to see things like that pay off,” said Johnny Sexton about the sleight of Finlay Bealham hand trickery at the heart of the Keenan try. Rugby needs more and more of that captivating invention, examples that this sport can be played in so many attractive ways. As for the Lowe acrobatics, Sexton was flabbergasted – just like everyone else watching on.
“Incredible finish to jump at the right time and keep the ball under control. World-class. I’ve seen Keith Earls practice it in training with pads and stuff, I don’t think I have ever seen him [Lowe] practice but he does a lot of things that probably just come really naturally to him. He is a phenomenal player… I love playing with him, the energy he brings, the way he goes about his business.”
The Algarve hunch
The spate of injuries that Ireland are registering isn’t pretty. The frightening bang suffered by Herring and the crumpled heap Tadhg Beirne wound up in were concerning, and you also have to generally wonder if there is some element of their own collective conditioning leaving them prone to suffering so many hamstrings issues.
And yet, in Saturday’s aftermath, came a different type of training ground story, an encouraging yarn underlining the growing sense of depth that now exists in this Farrell squad. So much so bench use was essentially the clinching of the win versus the French – Ross Byrne and co vibrantly adding to the mix rather than undermining it.
Farrell wasn’t in the least bit surprised given the hunch he lapped up under the Algarve sun last week. “I remember Johnny in Portugal, we got up to speed after a week and had a training session, 15-on-15.
“The team was already picked and he got the lads in after the session and said, ‘You wouldn’t know which is the first team, the Irish team that is playing at the weekend’. That is where we are at, so therefore the belief is real and you actually get to a point where you are pleased that people are able to get an opportunity to see whether they can take it or not because that is the stage we are at, we’re trying to find out about each other.”
Minted Murray
Conor Murray’s career as a 30-something has been rocky. All that repeated box-kicking under Schmidt and on into the early part of the Farrell era had damaged his reputation, generating the impression that he had become a one-trick pony who had little else to his game.
That erroneous perception, though, has now been exposed, Murray showing in the recent wins over South Africa and Wales that he does have variety in abundance but wasn’t able to show it due to the tactical diktat he had operated under.
The shackles are now loosened, enabling him to look more polished, but his effort against the French was especially top-notch as it came just four days after his father was seriously injured in an accident.
To be able to shut out that distress and produce what he did in a direct head-to-head with Antoine Dupont was sublime and what Sexton had to say about him was fully deserved. “Unbelievable really, a mark of the character of the player.
“In my eyes, he has always been a class operator and has always been world-class in his position. He changed the game in many ways for scrum halves and yeah, just amazing that he could just show up and be so calm and put in the performance that he did.”
