Andy Farrell giving Ireland players a chance to right an awful lot of wrongs against Argentina

"Sometimes you drop people and after a conversation five minutes later you wish you should have picked them because they get another chance," said Farrell.

WRONGS TO RIGHT: Head coach Andy Farrell is giving his players a chance to redeem themselves. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

You do not need to have the perception of a seasoned Kremlinologist to know Andy Farrell thrives under pressure and wants his Ireland players to feel the same way.

Yet the head coach’s thoughts on the team he selected to face Argentina this Friday night have piled an awful lot more pressure on those he retained from last weekend’s deeply underwhelming performance in defeat to New Zealand than they might have bargained for.

Selection, it seems, is a double-edged sword in the wake of a concerning 23-13 defeat at Aviva Stadium and in making just one change to the team which started against the All Blacks five days earlier, Farrell made it clear there was a heavy burden on those players “a bit lucky” to be selected to right an awful lot wrongs.

Having acknowledged he had a fully fit squad to select from ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, bar the failure of first-choice tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong to overcome the hamstring strain that had ruled him of the Autumn Nations Series opener, the Ireland boss dropped only inside centre Bundee Aki from the previous week’s line-up, inserting Robbie Henshaw in his place.

Yet while defending a replacements bench that failed to provide the required uplift against the Kiwis he also wielded the axe to Iain Henderson, Conor Murray and Ciaran Frawley, while handing potential Ireland debuts to tighthead prop Thomas Clarkson, for an injured Tom O’Toole, and fly-half Sam Prendergast.

Lock/flanker Ryan Baird comes in for Iain Henderson, Craig Casey for Murray as back-up to starting scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park while Frawley makes way for Prendergast and Clarkson joins a run-on front row that also includes a loosehead at the extreme Cian Healy, who will become Ireland’s joint-leading appearance maker alongside Brian O’Driscoll with his 133rd Test cap.

Those retained, Farrell said, were for “just the balance of what’s right for the group going forward. You’ve heard me say before that sometimes you drop people and after a conversation five minutes later you wish you should have picked them because they get another chance.

“So there’s a bit of that, you know, a bit of hurt and a reaction and that will come as well but at the same time we haven’t got thousands of players anyway. It is what it is and we know where our bread’s buttered and we’ve got to act according to that and make the group stronger the whole time by giving them an opportunity either to right some wrongs or take an opportunity that’s in front of them.”

It is clear Farrell is demanding some big performances against the Pumas back at the Aviva this Friday night, and perhaps number 10 Jack Crowley most of all.

Asked specifically about the Munster fly-half, who will start his ninth Test in a row since Johnny Sexton retired 13 months ago, Farrell said: “Jack, along with quite a few of our players, would have been hoping for better performance.

“Some of them are lucky enough to get another chance to do that, others are coming in and some of them played pretty well themselves, but there were too many people not right at their best last week and we’re hoping for everyone to improve, not just Jack.

"Obviously, the control of the game is something that Jack would be open and honest about of wanting to step up a little bit this weekend but we've certainly seen that in training this week."

Farrell further dialled up the pressure on his number 10 with his praise for the uncapped 21-year-old Prendergast, poised for a Test debut after just eight starts in 20 appearances for Leinster. Unplayed on the summer tour to South Africa, Prendergast has nevertheless had the air of a playmaker being groomed for greater things and that feeling was enhanced by a further three starts at number 10 on this season’s Emerging Ireland campaign.

“He’s ready,” Farrell added. “For a young fella that’s not had much game-time provincially, he’s obviously had more of late, but in an ironic way he’s probably been patient enough.

“Because, in his own mind he’d probably thought he’s been ready for quite some time because he’s that kind of kid, a confident kid.

“The experience that he’s got from being around the squad, he’s comfortable in his own skin.

“The reason for taking him on the Emerging tour was to make sure that he understood what it was to grab hold of his team and show that he is in charge.

“He showed that in abundance, we’ve seen the knock-on effect from that in the squad in the last couple of weeks.

“In his own mind he’s ready, he’s a young kid that’s in a pressurised type position obviously. He’s going to make his mistakes, but that’s the nature of anyone coming through.”

IRELAND (v Argentina): H Keenan (Leinster); M Hansen (Connacht), G Ringrose (Leinster), R Henshaw (Leinster), J Lowe (Leinster); J Crowley (Munster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster), R Kelleher (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht); J McCarthy (Leinster), J Ryan (Leinster); T Beirne (Munster), J van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster) – captain.

Replacements: R Herring (Ulster), C Healy (Leinster), T Clarkson (Leinster), R Baird (Leinster), P O’Mahony (Munster), C Casey (Munster), S Prendergast (Leinster), J Osborne (Leinster).