Andy Farrell insists Ireland players have shed 'inferiority complex'

If a Farrell press conference is like this, goodness knows how empowering it must be for the players, hanging on their head coach’s every word inside the Irish camp.

ON A MISSION: Head coach Andy Farrell. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Andy Farrell has urged his Ireland team to embrace their world number one status and attack the challenge of reaching a World Cup semi-final head on in Saturday night’s quarter-final clash with New Zealand.

The Ireland boss yesterday named an unchanged starting line-up from the one that pulverised Scotland inside 40 minutes at Stade de France last Saturday and described why he felt his players had shed the “inferiority complex” he believes has hindered past teams in their failed attempts to go beyond the last eight at World Cup.

Four years ago, Ireland’s World Cup squad returned home from Japan after a demoralising 46-14 quarter-final defeat at the hands of a rampant All Blacks side, with the IRFU’s own performance review into that miserable 2019 tournament deeming they had been debilitated by “performance anxiety”. 

Fast forward to 2023 and the Irish have marched into the quarters on the back of a 17-Test winning streak that began on tour in New Zealand 15 months ago, when Farrell’s men chalked up a historic first series victory having lost the opening match.

Pool wins over defending champions South Africa and then the Scots completed a clean sweep of their group rivals to set up a rematch of that 2019 knockout clash in Tokyo with Farrell having developed a playing group now able to puff out their chests and not only embrace being number one in the rankings but remain atop the rugby mountain for more than a year.

The head coach had set the tone for knockout rugby last Saturday night following that 36-14 win over Scotland when he described advancing to the last eight as “proper living” and he was at it again yesterday, describing the win or go home phase of the tournament as “big boy stuff”.

If this was merely a Farrell press conference, goodness knows how empowering it must be for the players, hanging on their head coach’s every word inside the Irish camp.

"I suppose an inferiority complex is what's happened in the past in terms of getting to world number one and thinking that we're going to fall off a cliff because this shouldn't be happening to Ireland,” Farrell said. 

"But, what we've tried to do is throw ourselves into challenges and meet them head-on and embrace that.

"We don't want to be second best, we want to be first best.

"We also realise that people are chasing you hard down, you've seen with the All Blacks over the last 20 years - that's why they're so respected because it's very hard to stay at the top, the guys that are the favourites are the ones I've always looked at throughout my career and envied really, because of how hard it is to do that.

"It's the place we want to be. If you're serious about getting better, being the team that you want to be that's the world that you've got to live in."

The Ireland team led by captain Johnny Sexton certainly appear to be inhabiting that world right now and Farrell believes they are better armed to cope with that so-called performance anxiety thanks to the squad’s work, individually and collectively with performance coach Gary Keegan, who has also equipped them with the means to banish any anxieties, said the Ireland boss.

"It's another big game in front of us. At this stage, it's all about preparation and recovery and making sure there's an ownership of the plan that you're going to try to apply to the opposition at the weekend. We immerse ourselves with that, it's the only way it should be.

"Of course things start to creep in, but we've tools and experience to combat all that. The main part is to remember that we're a bloody good team that play together and, when we do that, you're not on your own are you, so you can get away from those type of thoughts."

Asked if the mood in the camp had changed having secured a place in the last eight last Saturday night, the head coach said: “Well, we was in it last week, so it’s the same mood, it's the big boy stuff.

“It's the business end of the competition and when you get to those points within a competition then you draw hopefully on good experiences that you've had and the experiences that we've put ourselves under in the last three or four years are there were for moments like this.

“We've got a very experienced group that's been through a lot and learning to deal with weeks like last week and this week is something that we've got pretty good at so we draw on those experiences.” 

If Ireland’s confidence is as bulletproof as their boss believes, they will be an extremely tough nut for the All Blacks to crack at Stade de France on Saturday night.

IRELAND (v New Zealand): H Keenan (Leinster); M Hansen (Connacht), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Lowe (Leinster); J Sexton – captain (Leinster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster), D Sheehan (Leinster), T Furlong (Leinster), T Beirne (Munster), I Henderson (Ulster); P O’Mahony (Munster), J van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster).

Replacements: R Kelleher (Leinster), D Kilcoyne (Munster), F Bealham (Connacht), J McCarthy (Leinster), J Conan (Leinster), C Murray (Munster), J Crowley (Munster), J O’Brien (Leinster).