Chris Farrell: ‘I was getting ramped up sitting in the corner’

Forewarned is forearmed, as the proverb goes. Chris Farrell’s one-week release from Ireland camp back to Munster during the Six Nations has given the centre confidence that he and his fellow internationals will be on the same page with their provincial teammates by kick-off time at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Munster travel to in-form Edinburgh for a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final with the prospect of the team selected by head coach Johann van Graan having had only three training sessions together as a collective since January.

While Farrell, CJ Stander, Niall Scannell, and John Ryan were reintegrated to the Munster squad last week, all of them featuring in the bonus-point Guinness PRO14 home win over Zebre last Saturday, Ireland teammates Peter O’Mahony, Tadhg Beirne, Joey Carbery, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Dave Kilcoyne, and Conor Murray only resumed training on Monday following extra rest given their Test workloads or, in Carbery’s case, injury rehabilitation.

Which means van Graan has had little time to get his first team back on track for the first time since the final round pool win over English league leaders Exeter Chiefs on January 19. As Farrell recognises, the potential pitfalls are numerous but his mid-championship return to Munster to play against the Southern Kings on February 15 gave him a crucial eye-opener as to the importance of quickly getting cohesion within the playing group.

“It is a real issue, I think. I came in during the middle of the Six Nations for one game against the Kings and throughout that week of training I found myself mixing up calls and not being as sharp as I should have been or I would like to have been in a normal game,” said Farrell.

“I recognised that straight away and I said to a lot of the lads up in Ireland camp when I went straight back up that weekend, I spoke to Johann about it, and said, look, lads whenever we get back down here for this game, because Pete, Earlsy, and those lads have been off for a week we really need to sharpen up on our ability to be mentally switched on and to know the calls as quickly and as sharply as you normally would because it actually is a real issue coming back in from camp, that you need to sharpen up on.

“Because we recognised that in the middle of the Six Nations, I think it shouldn’t be an issue this week because the boys have a bit of work prior to arrival.”

After Ireland’s challenging Six Nations campaign, Farrell, 26 earlier this month, was pleased to come back to his province and get some “really important” minutes off the bench in the second half of last Saturday’s Zebre victory at Thomond Park.

I suppose it has been three weeks since I had my last game and that 35 minutes or whatever it was, it was nice to be able to sharpen up and build a bit of a relationship with Rory Scannell again in the centre and it felt very good to be out there again.

The mental switch into a European week following that 31-12 win did not need to be forced, Farrell sensing a change of gear immediately on his return to Munster’s High Performance Centre at the University of Limerick on Monday morning.

“It is pretty natural. Even last week I felt certainly that we were looking at Zebre, but we were also building certain things that we are looking for this week.

“(Monday) morning even, sitting here and we had a briefing at 8.30am or 9am, I was sitting up in the corner and I was watching what Johann was saying and I was looking at images and looking at stuff Edinburgh do and looking at where we can get benefits and attack them and I was getting ramped up sitting in the corner and it just happens naturally.

“There is a real vibe when you come into the auditorium in a Champions Cup week and having the other lads back, Pete, Earlsy, leaders, that probably creates a little bit of expectation that they’re back in the room, their presence is felt. It happens very much naturally.”

Farrell is certain Munster need to be at their best this Saturday if they are to overturn an Edinburgh side buzzing with confidence after an impressive pool-topping start to their Champions Cup campaign under Richard Cockerill.

“They’re a really good side and they’ve proved that this season, they’ve topped the pool with points to spare and they beat two French teams that are hugely powerful and if you’re going to beat two top French teams like Toulon and Montpellier, you have got to be strong.

“Defensively we’ve got to be well-structured. They’ve built this resilience, that is one of the main words I would use for them; how they’ve come from the last few seasons they’ve got this resilience now where they don’t give up and they fight for every single inch. They’re a quality side.”