Farrell wants to see greater composure under pressure in heat of battle
Ready for round two: Ireland players, from left, Joe McCarthy, Cian Prendergast, Rob Herring, Garry Ringrose and Tadhg Beirne during Ireland rugby squad training at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand this week.Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Ian Foster has jousted with Ireland enough times to know never to count them out of a contest and tomorrow morning’s second Test is no exception.
The New Zealand head coach has a series victory within his grasp following the All Blacks’ 42-19 win at Eden Park last Saturday, avenging last November’s 29-20 defeat in Dublin that had helped to pile the pressure on the custodian of the most scrutinised job in his homeland.
Yet while a nation exhaled as their worst fears went unrealised in Auckland, Foster had seen enough from Ireland’s first Test performance to remind him what Andy Farrell’s team is capable of producing.
Ireland may have committed uncharacteristic errors in last Saturday’s second quarter which were ruthlessly punished by his side with a three-try salvo in the 11 minutes before half-time to put the game out of reach at 28-5 but Farrell’s blueprint for success remains as true as it did eight months earlier.
The Irish game-plan, the All Blacks boss said yesterday, had been “probably very much the same” as that night at the Aviva.
“And that's a compliment to them more than anything,” Foster continued. “They have played a bit of rugby since then, whereas we hadn't. They played the Six Nations in between those windows. We saw some changes.
“They are a smart rugby team and they are trying to evolve what they do as well. I think everyone is in that space nowadays.
“We saw a team who has got a pretty good understanding of what they want to achieve, so their clarity of roles and their intentions and how they move collectively as a group is really strong.
“It's probably their best strength. That makes them a hard team to break down. I'm pretty sure they will pick up a few things. I'm pretty sure they didn't enjoy last week in terms of the result. I know they are a smart rugby team and they'll come back strong.” Brodie Retallick’s opinion of his current opponent chimed with his head coach despite Ireland’s squandering of a number of try-scoring opportunities at Eden Park.
“When they build some momentum – especially around their ball carriers, especially in the second half last week – I know there were a couple of knock-ons – but when they get their forwards carrying on top of the gainline, you need to stop it because once that happens, they’ve Johnny (Sexton) in the backs and once they throw it out, they can turn you. Once you give them too much momentum, that is when they really get their game going.”
That momentum has built by playing at a high tempo set by exceedingly quick ruck ball and sharp delivery from the base by scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park but it was unravelled as much by Ireland’s own hand as it was by All Black pressure last Saturday.
Robbie Henshaw this week admitted the Irish had not been calm and lacked composure in their decision-making which begged the question of Farrell yesterday how difficult was it to instill those traits of calmness and composure without compromising that need to play at a high tempo?
“It’s something that we’re working hard on, especially with (performance coach) Garry Keegan,” the Irish head coach said. “I honestly think, and I’ve said it to you guys before, that the mental side of the game is where we can make the most improvement because the occasion is a big one in itself.
“The opposition’s standard of the game is obviously of a very high quality and you have to get you’re emotional level (right) to be able to survive, never mind attack the game.
“So to be able to go from an emotional state and be nice and accurate as far as your physicality is concerned you’ve got to then be back down to as cool as ice, and in some of those bits we wasn’t. For example, you steal a ball and then somebody has a rush of blood and tries to kick the ball away straightaway and all of a sudden the ball is back in their hands.
“The game, for how ferocious it can be and how quick it can be at times, there’s not that much time to think. The ones with the coolest heads are the ones who are most accurate and the one who preserve the most energy at the same time.” Whether Ireland can tomorrow maintain that ice-cold steeliness to execute under pressure appears to be the key to this contest, while recognising that they are not the only side in the race looking to improve on last Saturday’s performance.
The All Blacks will be missing a key cog in the concussed Sam Whitelock, with Foster’s decision to move Scott Barrett back into the second row to partner Retallick instead removing that third-lock threat at lineout time which caused Ireland so many problems a week ago. That will not be lost on forwards coach Paul O’Connell as he irons out the creases that undermined what is perhaps his side’s strongest launch platform. It could be decisive.
The respective cases of Whitelock and Johnny Sexton were the focus of attention here in New Zealand, since the Ireland captain was cleared to play following a Head Injury Assessment process in which he failed the first, on-field test but passed the following two. The merits of that are discussed elsewhere but the absence of Whitelock and the presence of Sexton in their respective teams is of monumental importance. As Ronan O’Gara discussed at length in his Irish Examiner column yesterday, the loss of Whitelock’s leadership and experience to his pack-mates could be worth 10-15 points to the visitors. The presence of fellow veteran Sexton at the centre of everything Ireland do is just as important.
If Ireland do rectify the errors that handed the All Blacks such easy access into the first Test, it could be the difference maker as Ireland bid to make history on New Zealand soil by winning this Test and keeping the series alive.
J Barrett; S Reece, R Ioane, Q Tupaea, L Fainga’anuku; B Barrett, A Smith; G Bower, C Taylor, O Tu’ungafasi; B Retallick, S Barrett; D Papalii, S Cane – captain, A Savea.
S Taukei’aho, A Ross, A Ta’avao, P Tuipulotu, P G Sowakula, F Fakatava, R Mo’unga, W Jordan.
H Keenan; M Hansen, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; J Sexton – captain, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; T Beirne, J Ryan; P O’Mahony, J van der Flier, C Doris.
R Herring, C Healy, F Bealham, K Treadwell, J Conan, C Murray, J Carbery, B Aki.
Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
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