Farrell picked his fights so Ireland can roll with the punches

Coach's relentless drive to test his squad to their very limits could pay dividends on the fields of France in the coming weeks

Head coach Andy Farrell runs the rule over his players at the World Cup base in Tours on Friday.

We are close to finding out whether Andy Farrell’s drive for his Ireland squad to experience adversity is about to reap its rewards as the Six Nations champions embark on their 2023 World Cup campaign this month.

The head coach’s unquenchable thirst for challenges to his number one-ranked team has at times seemed hellbent on self-harm for a group of players that, to mere mortals, appears to have been pushed to the brink of sanity and reason.

Time and again obstacles have purposely been sought out and trouble embraced like a long-lost relation, be it Farrell’s undisguised glee at the late arrival of the team bus and the loss of two hookers to injury or the request for additional fixtures against the Maori All Blacks on an already daunting New Zealand tour schedule.

That his Ireland squad has not only survived but thrived in such pressure-cooker environments has so far vindicated the approach, the boss’s mindset adopted wholeheartedly by his players. Which is exactly what Farrell wanted as Ireland prepare for their opening Pool B match against Romania in Bordeaux next Saturday afternoon, the successful osmosis of more than 30 years’ exposure to elite professional sport, since he made his rugby league debut with Wigan at the age of 16.

The upcoming tournament will be the sixth of his career following three as a player across the two codes and two in union as an assistant coach with England in 2015 and Ireland four years ago. It represents a huge level of experience as he approaches his first World Cup as a head coach and Farrell this week divulged the lessons which have taken on board and implemented since he succeeded Joe Schmidt following Ireland's latest quarter-final exit in 2019.

“The key learnings are the scenarios that we've tried to put ourselves through in the last few years,” Farrell said. "Because you hear me say constantly best laid plans and all that, it's 100 per cent that at a World Cup.

"And the ones that get flustered with all that because they're not ready for all different types of permutations are the ones that lose the plot.

"The key to progressing in a competition like this is staying calm, keeping your feet under you and making sure that you just roll with the punches and be the best version of yourself no matter what happens and have a no-excuse mentality.

"So we've tried to put ourselves in those types of positions before and we know what's coming.”

Adaptation has been the cornerstone of squad selection in those four years, from the difficult early stages of his tenure, further disrupted by the Covid pandemic to the blossoming of a team to take on the world. Just 15 players of the 33 the head coach selected for his maiden World Cup campaign have survived from the 32-man 2019 squad that went to Japan but Farrell has followed his own mantra and gone with the flow since he took charge ahead of the 2020 Six Nations.

"I'm not surprised. If you're talking four years ago then we probably didn't know the total plan as in what we've been through and what we're going through, because you have to roll with the punches in that regard, don't you?

"At the same time, I think the process has always been for the here and now and the medium term and the long term.

"You know, a lot tend to go from cycle to cycle and chop a few and carry on.

"I think the right way for me anyway is to grow and develop competition as we go and then when we get to something like this, watch and learn and let's pick a card that's most right for the team.” 

After four years in development, Farrell is as keen as anyone to crack on at France 2023, a tournament with a lop-sided draw of which Ireland have found themselves on the wrong half alongside pool rivals South Africa and Scotland and potential quarter-finalists New Zealand and their French hosts.

The consensus is that it will provide the most competitive and open World Cup in its 36-year history and Farrell does not necessarily disagree.

"Well, I think everyone loves to say that anyway. I think when we get to the point I think everyone's so excited and everyone wants it to be like that because there's so many good teams that can compete with each other on any given day.

"And the pressures of the competition within itself, the history of all that, shows that it is going to be a wide open competition anyway, you know.

"So one step at a time. Let's see if we can build some momentum.”