Andy Farrell questions how officials upgraded Tadhg Beirne yellow to red 

Tadhg Beirne of Ireland and Beauden Barrett of New Zealand. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Andy Farrell questioned the logic behind Tadhg Beirne’s controversial early red card at Soldier Field but insisted it was no excuse for how Ireland collapsed late on to a New Zealand tidal wave.

Back at the scene of their 2016 breakthrough triumph over the All Blacks, Ireland lost arguably their most in-form performer less than five minutes into a peculiar contest which they still led past the hour mark before losing 26-13, a scoreline which could have been even more lopsided as those in green fell off the cliff in the final quarter.

Beirne was initially yellow-carded by French referee Pierre Brousset after a marathon TMO check into how his shoulder had made contact with the head of All Black out-half Beauden Barrett just three minutes into Saturday afternoon’s autumn opener in Chicago. 

Stadium screens didn’t show replays and the officials had to make their way to a small sideline screen on halfway.

The Munster captain was shown yellow but a bunker review upgraded it to red. The communication issues persisted with Farrell and the coaching team unable to hear any of the deliberations. The head coach shared his thoughts afterwards but did tread carefully.

“I don’t know because I am all for the safest way possible for this game to move forward so you’ve got to be careful what you say in that regard,” Farrell said. “To me, if you look at it in real time, I don’t know how he was transferred [from yellow to red]. They’ve obviously got their reasons and I wasn’t privy to that.

“You can look at it in all angles but the only way to look at it is in real time. To me it’s a forward pass in the first place and how that influences your decision after that…but it doesn’t matter any more does it? We got a red card and we actually dealt with it pretty well to be fair. That doesn’t make it any better.” 

Like his captain Dan Sheehan before him, Farrell wasn’t of a mind to reach for what looked like a very harsh dismissal as mitigation for what followed as Tamaiti Williams, Wallace Sititi and Cam Roigard ran in three tries in the space of just 15 minutes as discipline and defensive structure evaded Ireland in crunch time.

“Obviously it’s disappointing to lose any game. When you play a top tier side, a world class side like New Zealand, you always want to judge yourself against that opposition,” added Farrell, whose men had established a 13-7 lead early in the second half thanks to a second penalty from Jack Crowley to go with Tadhg Furlong’s early try, Ardie Savea grabbing New Zealand’s only first-half score. 

“Then obviously the occasion and all that together, it hurts a little bit more. Understanding why that happened is key for us now. Addressing all of that and making sure we move forward very quickly for what is a pretty important autumn.” 

Ireland’s set-piece struggles reared their head again here as the lineout malfunctioned mightily and the scrum didn’t provide much of a base either. While there was some delicious offloading and snappy play in the build-up to the Furlong try, that was the exception as Ireland went trough 80-plus minutes without a clean line-break for the first time in seven years.

“I suppose you subconsciously suppress yourself a bit when things don’t start going your way and I’m talking two tries and the game going away from us that little bit,” said Farrell. “One hundred per cent we were slower off the floor. I thought our fitness was pretty good. It’s what we talked about before the game, mental switch-offs, mental sharpness, lapses of concentration for two or three seconds and you get hurt. 

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

"We managed the red card and I thought the subs who were coming on with fresh legs, I didn’t think it was a fitness problem. It was a sharpness to our game that was the issue.

“It’s something that we’re aware of and it’s something that over the course of a season to get better at. But if you want to win big games like this, on big occasions like here in Soldier Field, that’s what it’s going to take and we weren’t good enough.” 

Sheehan lamented the lineout issues which began as early as the second minute and rarely relented. Ryan Baird’s prowess attacking the All Blacks lineout at least helped Ireland have some rare joy.

“I thought [New Zealand] did a great job at getting up early. It’s frustrating for us,” said Sheehan. “It’s something we pride ourselves on is winning good ball so that we can launch our attacks on. Just didn’t get into our flow today in a lot of times. It probably fed into the game in that we weren’t able to stack momentum.

“It’s definitely something we need to look at and try to find our flow again. But there’s a good group there. The right people are there and we’ll work the plan out now going into the next couple of weeks. We’ll get it humming again but it just didn’t click tonight."

With a transatlantic trek home before the meeting with Japan next weekend, Farrell is aware that Ireland will have to find fixes and freshness in a hurry. He did find room for some positives to take from this defeat.

“I thought we managed the game tactically pretty well. I thought our kicking game stroke territory, being in the right part of the field [was good],” he added. “Although some of our kicks were off, the manner of them was the right thing to do. We gave ourselves a bit of territory but it’s all about converting. It’s all about putting points on the board.

“I thought the start of the second half was pretty good but when you run a good line and drop a ball and all of sudden the ball is in behind you, you give away a turnover, kick to the corner and that’s the game. That’s how quickly the game can turn on you. You can defend really well at times in your own 22 but if you’re giving an infringement in the line out and you go again, then you need to back that up and go again, but we missed a tackle and all of a sudden you’re two tries down and that’s not going to be good enough against a side like that.”