Farrell determined to get Ireland 'back on the horse' for Six Nations after World Cup heartbreak

'It's bittersweet, everything that went on as far as the feeling within the World Cup. I was unbelievably proud of how we connected with our fans and did it together" said the Ireland head coach.

Ireland head coach, Andy Farrell, during the 2024 Guinness Men's Six Nations Launch.

Andy Farrell knows delivering back-to-back Guinness Six Nations Grand Slams will be a tall order but that will not stop the Ireland boss attempting to get his players up for the challenge so soon after the bitter taste of a World Cup quarter-final exit.

While Farrell insisted yesterday he was over Ireland’s last-eight loss to New Zealand in Paris last October 14, he knows some of his players will have found it a tougher task to put their disappointment behind them and he said he was determined to get them “back on the horse” for the Grand Slam winners’ opening game of their title defence against France in Marseille on Friday week.

“We all know that winning a Six Nations is very hard to do because of the standard of the teams what we’ve got in the competition continues to grow and that’s why we all love it,” Farrell said at the Guinness Storehouse as the tournament sponsors played host to the competition’s annual media day.

“What does success look like? We want to win every game and winning matters. I’ve never been one from shying away from that. I’ll say the same.

“But we’re realists and we know that it’s difficult. I suppose every team in the competition, as we stand today, would love to be in with a shout on the last weekend to be able to go on and win that.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of water that gets put under the bridge. You’ve got to roll with the punches especially in the Six Nations because it changes the whole time and that’s why we love it.

“It’s about getting ourselves to be in with a shout, however that may look on the final weekend. That has to be what we’re aiming for.” Farrell’s Six Nations preparations began in earnest following his media duties, the head coach heading from the Storehouse yesterday afternoon to the IRFU High Performance Centre to meet with his squad. It is the first time he has had charge of his players since the 28-24 defeat to All Blacks at Stade de France and he said his first collective interaction with a 34-player group captained by Peter O’Mahony would be to review the World Cup exit before embarking on a week-long warm-weather training camp on Portugal’s Algarve starting tomorrow.

“Yeah, first meeting this afternoon, where we’ll be open and honest,” Farrell said. “We are open and honest in the sense that any type of victory in the past you make sure you use every opportunity to grow and try to understand it together.

Farrell and Warren Gatland.

"It's the only way that you move on, by addressing things, and we'll certainly be doing that over the next couple of weeks.” Farrell recognises that the narrow defeat to the All Blacks, which ended a national men’s team record run of 17 consecutive Test victories, was a crushing blow to his players with new captain O’Mahony, appointed last week as successor to the now retired Johnny Sexton, admitting he contemplated retirement after the Stade de France loss and Andrew Porter having said he may never fully get over the blow.

The Ireland boss feels very differently, however.

"I'm over it. I don't buy into either, ‘it is bittersweet’, everything that went on as far as the feeling within the World Cup. I was unbelievably proud of how we connected with our fans and did it together.

"That, for me, continues by how we get back on the horse and I'm not saying that will translate to another big W in Marseille, I'm not saying that. We're talking about being proud about how we go about our business, to want to keep evolving our game.

"The journey continues. If you look at what we've got, first game in Marseille, unbelievable stadium, unbelievable atmosphere, a lot of the Irish who had flights for the (World Cup) semi-final, I heard a lot of them transferred it to Marseille so they're expecting a performance from us.

"We've got to stand up to responsibilities like that. Again, it doesn't guarantee us being successful.

"We've got to show fight and then the rest of the Six Nations is ahead of us. You look at what we've got after that, the trip to South Africa and two games against South Africa, it doesn't really get any better as an Irish management, as an Irish player or as an Irish fan.” Farrell also explained why had chosen the 34-year-old Test centurion O’Mahony to lead Ireland on a permanent basis, starting at the Velodrome in 10 days.

“Obviously, there were a few candidates because we’ve got some great leadership in the group and it continues to grow and Peter will be at the heart of that to help it do exactly that.

“As far as natural fit and natural leaders and coming from what we’ve come from before with Johnny, he’s the type of leader that is exactly the same in the sense that he’s just being himself and being your natural self is what they call being authentic these days, isn't it, it’s very easy to follow.

“There are certain people that you walk into a room and they’re in the room and make the room feel right, it’s pretty important around the place, and certainly on match day that you have that type of person in the dressing room and Peter’s certainly one of those. So just being himself and helping others to grow. It’s going to be great for him and his family and I know he’ll do the country proud.”