Andy Farrell embracing the challenge as Ireland head to France

RESPECT: Ireland head coach Andy Farrell with Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi of England after the game. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ireland on Monday begin preparations for Saturday night’s final warm-up Test before the World Cup as Andy Farrell puts his squad through what he described a tournament trial run in France this week.

From a Sunday morning flight from Dublin to their training base for the week in Biarritz to an evening kick-off against Samoa in Bayonne this Saturday, the Ireland head coach has planned a schedule to mimic timetables, weather conditions and even the bureaucratic rigmarole his final squad of 33 players will face when the World Cup starts in earnest in three weeks.

That Farrell will embark on this dry run on the back of a convincing 29-10 victory over England in Dublin, their final Tier-One opponents of the pre-World Cup summer schedule last Saturday, will undoubtedly have sent Ireland off to the south-west of France in high spirits while a previous week’s warm-weather training camp on Portugal’s Algarve will prepare the 38-man training group for the rigours of temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s centigrade.

The Ireland boss, as ever, is relishing the opportunity to further stress test his World Cup wannabes.

“I'm really looking forward to it,” Farrell said following the Aviva Stadium win. “Even recovery today. It's our first time that we've had back-to-back games because of the satellite bases that we've got in France. We (will) travel on a Thursday and we travel back from wherever we're playing on the Sunday so we'll be doing that tomorrow.

“Night rugby is obviously something that we're getting used to. It's a night kick-off. There's all sorts of stuff, as far as accreditations that have to be given out. There's restrictions on that, so it's a bit of a trial run for us next week in a lot of areas so that will be good for us.” 

Farrell was licking his lips for this IRFU-organised awayday even before his side had dispatched England by five tries to one in their last game on home soil before the World Cup.

“Getting used to all that stuff is important to us,” he had said last Thursday. “The atmosphere in Bayonne will be brilliant… Everyone will come from the beach that day and will be in party mood, so it's something that we want to experience before the start of the competition and get the feeling of how things are in France because our experiences over the last couple of years is that French sport in general is buzzing.” 

Against that backdrop, the Ireland management will have to make the decision on the final selection places up for grabs, paring down from 38 down to 33 players for the official tournament squad, which will be named back in Dublin next Monday. That will also play into matchday selection for this Saturday, 14 days out from a Pool B opener against Romania in Bordeaux.

“It’s just getting the right balance of who could do with the extra week or two as far as pre-season is concerned. Who could do with some more game time, what's the likely the team going forward against Romania and how that looks and trying to balance all that out.” 

There seems likely to be a fresh face at hooker following Dan Sheehan’s foot injury late in the opening half of the England game, a similar issue to the one suffered by back-rower Jack Conan against Italy a fortnight earlier and in addition to the hamstring problem being nursed by fellow hooker Ronan Kelleher. Farrell insisted he was well stocked in the position, though not necessarily to face the Samoans.

“Dan’s lost a bit of power in his foot. It seems to be the same old story, doesn’t it? We won’t know until we get it looked at, scanned or whatever, so we’ll probably know more in the morning.

“Possibly, Ronan is going to be (fit to face Samoa). The extent of Dan, we don’t know. We’ve had Diarmuid Barron in camp as well, Tom Stewart has been going great guns within camp and we’ll be fine.”