Looking up: How Andy Farrell is playing the long game

Prolonged periods of ball retention are no longer the non-negotiable they once were with players encouraged to play what is in front of them and stray from the script if circumstances present themselves to keep the ball alive with an offload out of contact. 

Andy Farrell said in his first pres conference as Ireland head coach: ‘We’ve got skilful players, we’ve got smart rugby players, we’ve got players who have got a lot more in them to give and we want to be able to adapt to the game in front of us.’

It was two years ago, on the eve of his first game and Six Nations campaign as Ireland head coach, that Andy Farrell referred to “paralysis by analysis”.

As Joe Schmidt’s former defence coach, Farrell had seen the wheels come off his predecessor’s best-laid plans that had sent Ireland to a Grand Slam, a series win in Australia, and a home victory over New Zealand in 2018 to a busted flush just 10 months later, World Cup roadkill for the All Blacks in yet another quarter-final exit.