Andy Farrell: 'We held our nerve and just about got there'

Ireland's head coach Andy Farrell. Pic: Billy Stickland/Inpho

A close run thing in Ballsbridge on Friday and Andy Farrell didn’t dispute it.

His Ireland team eventually took a 22-19 win against Argentina in a game where they didn’t score for the last 48 minuets and found themselves clinging on at the end as the Pumas pounded into the home team’s 22.

It was an imperfect evening for the Six Nations champions who looked slick at times in the first half-hour but lost that momentum and found themselves ruing some more indiscipline and handling errors again after last week’s loss to the All Blacks.

“It was three or four games in one, wasn’t it really? Obviously the over-riding feeling is we’re delighted to get the win. There were a few things we needed to learn from last week, and some things that we didn’t address on the field. But we said last week we had a chance of winning ugly. We did that this week, that’s a plus.

“We showed really good intent in how we started the game. We were direct, we were piling into them, we were hard to handle playing off quick ball. On the back of that, if we get that Tadhg Beirne [disallowed] score it justifies the score a little bit because of the dominance that we had.

“But we know the kind of side they are, they’ve improved out of sight. And the pressure they put on us, and that we put ourselves, obviously brought them back into the game and to cut a long story short, we held our nerve towards the end and just about got there.” 

That indiscipline bled into 13 penalties and two yellow cards for a side that has for so long prided itself on being squeaky clean, or at least being seen to be squeaky clean. Double digit peno counts should be an absolute no-no. They conceded 13 last week too.

“Yeah, it’s something that we’ve been outstanding on over the last ten years actually. But certainly in that amount of time you’re saying there, it’s not done out of players going out there to be ill-disciplined.

“It’s coming from the right place, if that may sound stupid. All they’re trying to do is do the right thing by their team, They just need to be a little more patient individually and trust the team and what they’re about.” 

Ireland’s up and down evening – in that order – saw starting out-half Jack Crowley enjoy some brilliant moments in the first-half with the Munster man claiming the opening try, a brilliant drop goal and plenty of other good moments beside.

His struggles in the second-half, when sending a cross-kick miles into touch and tackling an opponent in the air, were mirrored by too many of his teammates although he was very much in the black side of the ledger when coming off.

“Some real good stuff actually,” said Farrell. ”And then some bits that you'd obviously like to tidy up like everyone else. You always ask a question about an individual and I have to answer the question, but at the same time it's a team game. He either does some good stuff and some bad stuff, so it's not just Jack.” 

Crowley was replaced by young contender Sam Prendergast for the last 18 or so minutes and the youngster, making his Test bow, looked to push the boat out with one lovely delayed pass, a Garryowen and a half-break in his time on the field.

Ultimately, though, he couldn’t point the team over the line either.

“I thought he was excellent,” said the head coach. “I thought he was really composed, playing your first cap in that type of position, that type of situation, I thought he was really composed. He played at a nice tempo at the line and started to make things happen. That just shows what type of character he's got.” 

Fiji and Australia are still to come in the next two weeks. Farrell said after New Zealand that some players were lucky to get a second chance here and that he wanted to see a response. Did he get that here?

“In parts. I think if I can try and sum it up of where we're at, I think when you're looking at two top sides that we've played in the first two weeks, it looks like we're still trying to find out feet in the intensity of the full 80 minutes, for that top 1% gains.

“Obviously New Zealand and Argentina have been playing those games for the last five months. It looks like our lads, some of them, are a little bit shy of that type of intensity. Hopefully we'll build it through this month and we'll see the best of it in the next two games.”