Ireland players must understand 'what 100 per cent looks like' to kickstart Six Nations campaign

Italy come to Dublin on Saturday as Andy Farrell's side bid to get up and running.

IN FOCUS: John Fogarty at the IRFU High Performance Centre Indoor Pitch on Tuesday. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations campaign will only get back on track following their French hammering if the team understands “what 100 per cent looks like”, assistant coach John Fogarty said on Tuesday.

Last Thursday’s 36-14 defeat at Stade de France was the worst possible start for the 2023 Grand Slam winners and 2024 champions as they capitulated to the defending titleholders in Paris inside the first 46 minutes, after which they trailed 29-0.

Head coach Andy Farrell immediately identified a “lack of intent” in his players for allowing France to take a stranglehold so early into the opening game of the championship, ruthlessly exploiting Irish errors and passivity in defence to run in three tries inside 33 minutes with Thomas Ramos adding two conversions and a penalty for a 22-0 half-time lead.

Farrell’s scrum coach picked up on the theme at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Abbottstown as preparations for the visit of an in-form Italy to Aviva Stadium this Saturday continued on the training field. He spoke about a “fair bit of frustration” lingering in the Ireland camp five days after the opening-night loss but also pinpointed the main focus for improvement needed against a rising Italian side which will travel to Dublin with confidence high following their 18-15 home victory over Scotland last Saturday.

“I think understanding what 100 per cent looks like, understanding what our standard is. That's really, really important,” Fogarty said.

“If I walk past something in the scrum and I kind of skip over it, players can tend to just accept that and drop down to the level. So it's unbelievably important that they understand what the standard is, what the Irish standard is and what they're capable of.

“And there's a bit to that. Then owning and understanding and trying to figure out why they didn't deliver in the first-half. In every aspect of the game, we're going through certain images that don't look great and trying to contrast that with what does, what is the standard, to make it as easy as possible to understand what we need to do to get better.

“That's been going on across the game. Attack, defence, kicking game, scrum, lineout, etc, all across the game to make sure that we're very clear. So driving clarity within the playing group to make sure that's really, really clear.

“That's where we're at now at this stage of the week.” 

Describing the mindset within the team, Fogarty detected players not being themselves and playing to their strengths rather being taken aback by French ferocity.

“I don't think there's shock or surprise. I think what we were seeing or what they were feeling is I think they were suppressing themselves a little bit.

“It's a collision-based game. And if you're on the receiving end of collisions, defensively, you're always going to be chasing your tail.

“You're getting up off the ground. You might commit too many numbers to ruck. Now you're down numbers and there's a knock-on effect. Mistakes are being made and the feeling in general starts to feel like we're off.

“And then players can tend to suppress themselves a fraction. The mood is off. On the other side, in attack, if we're carrying and we're getting belted, we're again putting too many numbers to ruck.

Our attack doesn't feel quite right. Guys are again starting to tighten up or quieten up. And they're not being themselves.

“What we felt or what I felt watching it from the sidelines was I didn't see us being ourselves because we were on the receiving end of a French team that came out of the blocks.

“They hit us hard and hit us quick and played on top of us. And I think we lost 20 minutes there where we really started to suppress ourselves a little bit and they racked up the points.

“Half-time was a tough one. Andy made things very clear at half-time where they needed to go, the direction we needed to go in as a team. And we got a response. It's in those moments that there's a frustration I'm talking about in letting that happen.” 

The Ireland assistant agreed more character was needed against Italy on home soil this Saturday but said an improved Irish performance would not be easy if the lessons of last Thursday were not taken on board.

“I think a reaction doesn't happen just because you didn't go as well the week before,” Fogarty said. “That's why I'm talking about… understanding of what it is they're capable of, making that really clear.

“I think they'll be frustrated and there'll be a reaction of sorts, but a connected, joined up reaction is what we're looking for. And it will need to be against Italy, good side, well-coached across their backline. They've got threats, strong, quick.

“We'll see the kicking game again. Monte Ioane will be firing off the lines. I know (Ange) Capuozzo is back, so plenty of guys to chase. So it'll all be out there in the field and we need to make sure we're the best version of ourselves.” 

With head coach Farrell set to name his team on Thursday, the return of first-choice tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong following calf issues which kept him out of the opening game will be a major boost. Ireland’s scrum, missing three first-choice looseheads in Paris as well as Furlong, was rock solid with Jeremy Loughman at loosehead and Thomas Clarkson on the tighthead side but Fogarty acknowledged the potential benefits of restoring an 82-cap front-rower to the set-piece.

“He's healthy. He's massive (for us),” the scrum coach said. “He's played three Lions Series and nine Tests in those series. So he brings in all the experience and confidence and so on. So, yeah, it's massive.

“He's trained now. We've done live scrums today. We're doing a few more tomorrow. So he has completed all his bits and he was in live scrums. He did the session. So, yeah, it's brilliant to have a player like him back.”