Andy Farrell’s Ireland finally emerge from Joe Schmidt’s long shadow
Ireland’s Jack Conan gets in for a try despite the efforts of England’s Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tom Curry. Picture: James Crombie/Inpho
And now do you believe us?
Ireland finally produced the performance they have been promising, in the face of a torrent of critical analysis these past weeks and months, and boy was it worth the wait.
Andy Farrell’s tenure as head coach has not been remotely close to plain sailing since he was promoted from defence coach to the top job. His predecessor, Joe Schmidt, is the man who, despite his World Cup failures, did so much more for Irish rugby and set the benchmark for all who will follow. As the next man up, Farrell had at times looked as if he was on a hiding to nothing as the disastrous fall from grace that afflicted Schmidt’s World Team of the Year for 2018 continued into the next era.
Yet Farrell obstinately and passionately stuck to his guns, strong in his belief that his players needed empowering, to take control of their own direction of travel through self-determination and a strong player leadership group. The management would facilitate that and it has taken time and not a little angst along the way. Chastening defeats in both Twickenham and Stade de France cast a pall over the head coach’s maiden Six Nations in 2020. A further defeat to England in south-west London last November confirmed to some that he may not be the man to take Ireland back to the top of the tree that Schmidt had reached prior to 2019.
And yet, the noises from those extended Irish lockdown camps throughout were entirely positive, players and coaches to a man expressing their belief that the good work and culture of “heads-up rugby” being evolved on the training fields of the IRFU High Performance Centre in Abbotstown would soon bear fruit.
There was scant evidence of that last February 14 when France came to Dublin and Ireland failed to throw a punch of any description, losing 15-13 to a team of the future that had left its own bells and whistles largely under wraps.
Yet that performance, on the back of a narrow loss in Cardiff based largely on Peter O’Mahony’s 14th-minute red card, has proved to be the dark before the dawn and Ireland have been on the upturn ever since. And if Saturday’s performance in ending a four-game losing streak to England with attacking variety, physical intensity, and a more than solid set-piece, is a pointer to Ireland’s future under Farrell, then Schmidt’s shadow will be left firmly in the distance.
Farrell naturally hopes it is but the weight has certainly lifted from his shoulders following this breakout victory for his term of office. His players have delivered and finally shown concerned supporters that Ireland are indeed on the right track.
“That’s the game, isn’t it? That’s what it’s all about,” the head coach said on Saturday night.
“It’s about transferring what you do day in, day out onto the field, under pressure. It wasn’t perfect out there by any means; the start was probably completely different to last week. We started pretty well last week; the start wasn’t great, we made a few errors.
“What was most pleasing is how calm we were, how patient we were with the ball, and how we went from moment to moment and didn’t get distracted.
“We kept our energy at a high level we needed to win a game against England.”
Now the challenge will be to benchmark that performance, and the wonderful scores from Keith Earls and Jack Conan, as a template for future success.
“It’s about starting like that the next time, isn’t it,” Farrell agreed. “Sometimes it’s not right to build into a competition like the Six Nations, because before you know it it’s too late.
“Again, sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t at the start.
“But, we’ll take the learnings from this. It’s a great reference point, isn’t it, from where we left off.”
That Ireland finished the game with 13 men following the second-half sending off of Bundee Aki and a late yellow card for Conor Murray, did not take away from an excellent display to consign the 2020 champions to a third defeat of the campaign.
Nor did it spoil a wonderful send-off to CJ Stander’s Test career in his 51st and final Ireland game having announced his decision to retire at the end of the season.
First-half tries from Keith Earls, a brilliant finish off a well-worked lineout move, and Jack Conan, completing an excellent team build-up involving forwards and backs, did the early damage. The goal-kicking of captain Johnny Sexton, who would finish the game with a perfect eight kicks from eight and the championship with 23 from 24 attempts, sent Ireland into a 20-6 first-half lead.
There should have been a third try, Earls denied the glory of a second with an athletic dive to ground a Sexton crossfield kick by a marginal knock-on decision against Cian Healy earlier in the move.
And when things started to unravel a little, as they did when Aki was sent off for a high tackle on Billy Vunipola, Ben Youngs scoring a try for England soon after, Sexton guided his team home, 32-18, with the authority the visitors so desperately lacked.
Farrell will have been entitled to a huge sigh of relief following this after months of scrutiny and criticism and his continuing assertion that Ireland, contrary to performances, were moving in the right direction. So what kept him and his coaching group on message throughout that time?
“Belief in what we’re doing. We get belief in what we’re doing and what we’re preaching by the reaction from our players and they believe in what we’re doing.
“They think we’re getting better and they’re constantly talking about that, you know, ‘it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming’. So you can’t ask for more than that and coaches can’t. You know you’re on the right track when you get the feedback from the players.”
After beating England for the first time since Schmidt delivered the 2018 Grand Slam at Twickenham, that belief may be starting to spread a little way beyond the confines of the dressing room.
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