Andy Farrell: 'I haven't seen a game like that ever, and you think you've seen it all'

Farrell took issue with a reporter describing Ireland's first half performance against South Africa as "shambolic"

Andy Farrell said he was "unbelievably proud" of Ireland following his side's defeat to South Africa. Pic: ©INPHO/Gary Carr

Andy Farrell insisted Ireland would learn valuable lessons from their 24-13 defeat to South Africa at Aviva Stadium on Saturday night as he reflected on what he described as a “chaotic” first half that saw his side concede a 20-minute red card and three other yellows.

Ireland started the second half with just 12 players as they trailed 19-7 to the world champions and number one-ranked team in Test rugby. Lock James Ryan had had his yellow card upgraded to a 20-minute red while fly-half Sam Prendergast, auxiliary full-back replacement Jack Crowley and prop Andrew Porter were also sin-binned in the final minutes before the break as the Springboks were rewarded for an utterly dominant scrum with a penalty try to add to earlier scores from Damien Willemse and Cobus Reinach. 

Dan Sheehan had scored for Ireland when they were down to 13 players at the tail end of the opening 40 minutes and Farrell’s side actually won the second half 6-5 thanks to two penalties from Sam Prendergast against a try from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

That was a point of pride for the head coach and he took umbrage at a suggestion from a radio reporter that his team’s performance had been “shambolic” in the first half.

“I said chaotic. Yeah, I won't repeat your word because I think you're wrong,” Farrell said in response.

“I haven't seen a game like that ever, and you think you've seen it all, and I haven't seen a game like that ever.

“I suppose, first and foremost, you look at yourself and why things have happened. So, we'll do that, and make sure that we learn the lessons from that.

“But my overriding thought of the game is that I'm unbelievably proud, so for you to start a conversation off like that doesn't sit well.” 

Farrell said the chastening experience would be beneficial to his players in the long-term.

“Well, if you can't learn from that, then you're in the wrong place, really. For all sorts of reasons, I thought going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for the country, certainly in that first 10 minutes of that second half, it was absolutely amazing.

“And I think you could see with the crowd, the effort that they put in, that the crowd recognised that and supported them.

“To be able to win a second-half 6-5 under those type of circumstances, I know it doesn't tell a full story of the second-half, but it's actually amazing, really, that that happened, or that occurred.

“The lessons to learn are, when you fight so hard to give yourself a chance, and you're at 72 minutes, trying to overplay probably in your own 22, you've still got time on the clock to put ourselves back in the right field positions.

“We overplayed a little bit and wasted a little bit of time, but then we found a way, and with four minutes to go, we had a glaring chance to score a try under the post, and (if) we scored that with four minutes to go, who knows what could have happened with a little bit of momentum, but we couldn't do that, so all credit has to go to South Africa.”