Sexton ‘back on horse’ for tour, insists Farrell
‘Tag or Tad’ ... Furlong is enjoying fronting up for Lions
ANDY FARRELL has claimed Lions training at Carton House has been so intense this week that Johnny Sexton hasn’t had time to wallow in one of the worst performances of his career. Sexton linked up with the Lions following on from Friday’s under-par effort in Leinster’s Pro12 semi-final elimination by Scarlets. But Farrell, whose own son Owen also linked up with the tourists a week earlier than anticipated as Premiership champions Saracens were dethroned in England, claimed there has been no room for anyone to feel sorry for themselves ahead of next Monday’s departure. ‘All world-class players have had frustrating games throughout their careers and you need them every now and again to take stock, break it down, wonder why, and get back on the horse,’ said the defence coach. ‘What’s great about this environment is that you haven’t got time to think about anything else other than the task in hand.’ Farrell rated the fitness of Sean O’Brien as nearly there. ‘He has progressed really well. He’s back to a bit of straight line running, but we’re just managing him, making sure we don’t break him down too early.’
‘The whole point of being a Lion is being able to adapt’ ‘Some of the lads just make bad attempts at my name’
CARTON HOUSE has been wearing a very different hue this week. Red, not green. A lion emblem, not a shamrock. Friendly-fire accents from the UK that would usually be looked upon as foe. Eyecatching tour memorabilia scattered around the lobby and down various corridors.
A blazing sun, too, not winter or spring wind and rain as is the rugby norm, the mercury rising to around 22 degrees Celsius and a 60-plus per cent humidity at training time.
Unfamiliar weather for Ireland, and New Zealand too, bearing in mind the much cooler conditions to be encountered from next Wednesday on when the Lions touch down in Auckland ahead of the June 3 opener in Whangarei.
Not that there weren’t distinct Irish quirks to observe yesterday afternoon where the thoughts of England trio George Kruis, Jamie George and Dan Cole, along with Wales’ Dan Biggar, were all on offer, the last of the first impressions to be gleaned before it all kicks off on the other side of the world next week.
The Lions press conference starting 37 minutes late was very in keeping with how Ireland run their media business when they are in the Co Kildare building.
Familiar, too, was the sight and sound of Andy Farrell and a typically jocular, openbook Tadhg Furlong each saying their piece in the same drawing room that Joe Schmidt and Co will occupy next week as they prepare for their own overseas June adventure, a week in the States followed by a fortnight in Japan. Nineteen minutes and around 28 questions the late-arriving Farrell (below) was eventually on deck for, beginning with heartfelt sympathies for those bereaved in the ghastly Manchester bomb on Monday night — he lives just 20 minutes up the road from the concert venue when not working in Ireland as Schmidt’s defence coach — and ending with a good humoured refusal to shave off his beard as a forfeit if the unfancied Lions somehow manage a rare series win in New Zealand. In between those deathly serious and jovial opinions about topics occupying the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum, Farrell said much but, as is his habit, revealed little for fear of giving the lying-in-wait opposition a cheap leg-up as he strives to tailor his defence to be the best it can be, better than what was achieved with Ireland some months ago.
Just don’t suggest he has joined the tour having endured an awkward opening to 2017 with Ireland ambushed in Scotland. ‘Rocky start? That’s interesting,’ he observed, ignoring how the Six Nations championship favourites failed to live up to that tag and lost twice along the way to a second-best finish.
‘Anyway, I thought we did pretty well throughout the Six Nations because we adapted and that is the whole point of being a Lion, being able to adapt and adjust along the way.
‘There isn’t that much time for preparation in between the games and adapting on the run is absolutely key. We were proud of the way, with Ireland, how we fought back after that disappointment in the first game, and to come back and put ourselves in the position that we did in finishing second, I think, was testament to the squad.’
What was absorbed that might now be of Lions use? He wasn’t telling. ‘Honestly, I’m not stupid enough in the press conference to tell you everything that I have learned.
‘It’s accepting what you think is acceptable or accepting what you think is excellent and we are after excellence.
‘We are not trying to accept anything that is average. We are not accepting good, really. We want to be excellent and we want to keep pushing forward.’
Lions ringmaster Warren Gatland flies home as a Wales coach still searching for a first win over his native country. Ten WalesNew Zealand clashes. Ten Wales defeats, seven by double-digit margins.
It doesn’t generate optimism that the outcome will be any different trying to win with the Lions, but Farrell emphatically backed his temporary boss all the same at the end of a week where he described the level of training intensity reached at Carton by the 30 of the 41-strong squad available for camp as having gone through the roof.
‘Warren has got very close to the All Blacks a few times. Not many people have got close to them and Warren has been a very successful coach over his career. He knows what he wants. He won’t take any notice of the background noise. He will just focus on what is right for this team to be successful.’
One intriguing question that will be answered by June 21 when the team for the first Test is announced is whether Furlong the bolter is part of that recipe aimed at recreating the glory of the Lions series victory in New Zealand 46 years ago.
Furlong has been having fun this week in the Wexford strawberry-type weather, revealing he helped himself to a batch of the fruit last week before coming into camp and how his biggest problem settling in has been non-Ireland players trying to properly say his name.
‘Some of the lads are up front and ask me how you pronounce it,’ said the tighthead, who has been rooming with Saracens’ second row Kruis, a night-and-day pairing if ever there was one in terms of their origins, the prop from Campile in farming belt Wexford speed-dating the lock from Guildford in leafy Surrey.
‘Some lads say, “How are you big fella?” Some of the lads just make bad attempts, “Tadge”, “Tog”, “Tad”.’
That’s pre-tour Lions for you. All getting to know you, all getting on the same page before flying.