Andy Farrell: 'We'll need all 33 rock solid to win a World Cup'

The first game of the season can be a cocktail of rust and brain fog but Andy Farrell made the point yesterday that the squad has been together for six weeks rather than just the five pitch sessions they get before a Six Nations.

Fri, 04 Aug, 2023 - 10:00

Brendan O'Brien

Grand Slam champions, series winners in New Zealand for the first time and a three-for-three autumn series in the bag. It’s no wonder Ireland are the top-ranked team in rugby but Andy Farrell isn’t leaning in to any sweet talk as the World Cup gets very real.

A decent, likeable type who is renowned for running a happy camp, the Ireland head coach came over yesterday as equal parts good cop and impatient cop as he skewered any notions of an easy first day at the office when they face Italy in Dublin tomorrow.

Paul O’Connell had given notice of how Ireland were looking to approach these three warm-up matches on Tuesday by voicing an intention to ‘hit the ground running’ and the departmental chief is clearly preparing the same pep talk before his force hits the streets.

“It's the first match and we expect ourselves to be at our best, that's the pressure we always do,” Farrell explained. “Do we achieve that? Not always, so that's the challenge, but it's no excuse. We expect that of ourselves.”

There are easy outs here if he wanted them. The first game of the season can be a cocktail of rust and brain fog but he made the point yesterday that the squad has been together for six weeks rather than just the five pitch sessions they get before a Six Nations.

The unfamiliar combinations and inexperienced heads? Deal with it.

If the nation expects come France next month, then Farrell is looking for return on investment now. Not so much on the scoreboard - even if an eleventh straight win would do very nicely - but in the form of a slick and accurate performance on both sides of the ball.

Consider, for example, his answer when asked if there are any particular areas that he wants to see done well by his Ireland team against the Italians. No, he deadpanned: other than everything. That’s a high bar this early in the day.

“We have to keep evolving as a team. I’m not saying we’re tinkering with things all the time but we have to keep evolving. And I know that this is a broken record but it’s the truth: no part of our game is anywhere near good enough.

“It’s not and nor will it be really, ever. We’re all striving for perfection, we’re all striving to reach our potential. Is reaching our potential perfection? It’s not either, really. It’s being able to roll with the punches and be at your best with whatever a Test match throws at you.”

There are no lack of threads to pull from a XV that shows a dozen ‘changes’ from the one that last lined out, against England in late March, although five of those on the bench tomorrow also featured in that Six Nations end game.

Where to start? Jack Crowley’s audition at ten, in the absence of the suspended Johnny Sexton, is an obvious fulcrum. The Munster out-half will be partnered by his Munster mate Craig Casey while Ciaran Frawley will, finally, make his Test debut off the bench.

Ireland have rested the entirety of their first-choice front row, Iain Henderson captains the side from the second row alongside the young but raw Joe McCarthy, and Caelan Doris starts from the unusual, for him, openside berth.

Jimmy O’Brien gets to stake a claim as Hugo Keenan’s understudy at full-back, Keith Earls and Jacob Stockdale will hope to remind people of past glories – the latter gets a first cap in 25 months – and Stuart McCloskey needs a big game given his lack of versatility.

Farrell’s intention is that he has stitched enough experience through the roster to provide the fringe players (our word, not his) with the platform needed to prosper. What he doesn’t want, what he won’t countenance, is a repeat of the Fiji stutter last November.

“It takes all 33 in a 33-man squad to be absolutely rock solid to be able to win a World Cup. And that’s why I’m looking forward to this game more than a lot of games we’ve played in the past really and that’s why, when you make so many changes, that you’ve got to have a bit of balance within that as well.”

It’s an ambitious declaration. Not so much the bit about winning the World Cup, which we’ve heard before, so much as the notion that they can find that groove so early and with so many moving parts trying to find an accommodation with each other at the same time.

That sense of flux will only escalate as the evening wears on and the benches empty. Tom Stewart and Calvin Nash, like Frawley, are poised for debuts, Cian Prendergast and Caolin Blade have a cap apiece, while Cian Healy, Tadhg Furlong and Tadhg Beirne will bring over 200 to the table by way of balance.

The suspicion is that anything up to 30 of the 33 places are already filled. That leaves nine men scrambling for a ticket but Farrell insisted the race remains ‘very open’ ahead of Saturday's opener and the warm-ups to come against England and Samoa.

“It’s everyone’s team,” he said.