New Year can't come soon enough for Andy Farrell

Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray celebrate a try by Keith Earls during the Autumn Nations Cup match against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium. Picture: Ramsey Cardy

Andy Farrell will enjoy his mince pies an awful lot more this Christmas after his new-look Ireland squad finally put together a cohesive and winning performance to close out 2020.

Yet with the dust barely settled on an encouraging and well-deserved 31-16 victory over Six Nations rivals to claim third place in the Autumn Nations Cup, the head coach was the first to accept there is a long way to go before his team resembles anything close to the finished article.