Garry Ringrose: Andy Farrell brings out his ruthless side when he needs to

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell: Personable but ruthless when the situation requires it

Over a year into the Andy Farrell era and the jury remains in session. Ireland have waxed and waned in eleven games under the head coach. For every suggestion of progress there has been a stutter, most obviously when faced with the English or the French.

Taking over from Joe Schmidt was never going to be easy, even when the Kiwi’s last year in charge fell so far short of expectations. As his assistant and successor, Farrell needed to reboot a side that had gone stale and change the mood music internally.

The latter of those has been far more successful.

Adopting a more player-led, and friendly, approach was a no-brainer. Schmidt’s relentlessness had worked brilliantly but proved unsustainable. The problem was in loosening the shackles while maintaining a sense of direction and authority from the top down.

That is a juggling act in itself.

When Rob Kearney appeared as an analyst on Virgin Media for last year’s Autumn Nations Cup coverage he told the story of Farrell sitting in a chair in Bundee Aki’s hotel room in Japan having his hair cut, holding a guitar and singing an Oasis song.

“He’s a very different personality to Joe Schmidt,” said the former Leinster and current Western Force full-back at the time. “He’s someone who connects with the players on a different sort of level.”

Iain Henderson also spoke last year about the “different mentality” around the camp, how everything was being done in a positive manner and players who may have been tentative about asking questions in days gone by felt more empowered to seek clarity.

It’s all too easy to lean back on that thing about nice guys finishing last but it’s worth noting that it was Farrell, not Schmidt, who brought Kearney’s long and distinguished Test career to a close when he left him out of his first get-together over a year ago.

Kearney wrote about it in his subsequent autobiography, explain how the phone call had lasted somewhere between 90 seconds and two minutes and how the perfunctory ending to his long Test career had left him rattled.

Stuart Lancaster, Leinster’s senior coach, suggested to Kearney afterwards that Farrell “needed to show change, that things would be different going forward” and the Louth man’s absence was the embodiment of it at the time.

“Well, it’s the job," Farrell said then. "If I’m trying to shy away from that, I’m the wrong man really. Joe handled that brilliantly. That’s why he’s so successful. I’ve said to the lads that I want an honest environment. I don’t want to give them false information, false hope.”

The ‘no prisoners’ approach is something Farrell also noted with approval eight years ago when he spoke glowingly of the manner in which the businessman Dave Whelan had succeeded in bringing Wigan’s football and rugby league sides together under the one roof.

And he was only six months into the assistant coach’s job under Stuart Lancaster with England when he declared there would be no hesitation on his part if form and circumstances called for his son Owen to be dropped from the team.

“I agree he's very personable and has a relationship with each individual, which is important,” said Garry Ringrose this week. “But he does have that [ruthlessness]. He steps up, whether in meetings or at half-time, or if there's areas we need to be better at or aren't meeting the standards.

They're standards we set ourselves. He doesn't hesitate to remind us in that ruthless fashion you're talking about. You probably don't see it much from him, but he steps up when he needs to.

Enforcing standards is only a part of it.

Only four of the side Farrell chose to start this Six Nations against Wales will not be in their thirties by the time the 2023 World Cup comes around. Seven of that XV will be in or beyond the mid-point of their fourth decade.

Whether by accident or design – it’s really a combination of both – there are only three of the starters in Rome tomorrow over the 30 mark and the average age of the team has plummeted by two whole years in three games.

Kearney won’t be the only one to have taken a tough call come the next World Cup.