FEELING THE HEAT
Defeat at Twickenham resurrects fears over Farrell’s resistance to a youthful revolution
CHANGE was a sporting topic before it came to dominate political discourse in Ireland.
From the moment he officially succeeded Joe Schmidt as national coach, Andy Farrell has been advised to change.
Decisions that would constitute radical acts in the largely conservative story of Irish rugby were urged on Farrell: make James Ryan captain, sacrifice short-term Six Nations prospects for a recommitment to failed World Cup four-year cycles; ignore reputations when it comes to team selection.
Those calls, quietened by two wins from the first two games of the championship, have risen again since Sunday’s defeat in Twickenham.
It is once again the restless spirit animating rugby talk on the island.
And even if the threat of a global pandemic makes the postponement of the match against Italy on Saturday week inevitable, there will only be a brief pause in which those agitating for change at scrum-half consider the ramifications of the coronavirus.
Soon, they will resume the demand for sweeping transformation in Irish rugby — even if the likelihood of the visit to France on March 14 being cancelled must also grow by the hour.
Farrell’s long and largely successful career in professional sport has been founded in part on the understanding that reacting to the most recent result is not always well advised.
Yet he must also recognise how thoroughly his team were pummelled last Sunday.
In the coming days, there will be many within the Irish set-up feeling pin-pricks of pressure as the squad try and rebound from defeat.
JOHNNY SEXTON
HE remains the best out-half in Irish rugby. The question, though, is whether Sexton is now so far ahead of the competition that he is protected from the calls for change.
It would not be a risk by Farrell to start Ross Byrne against Italy, but the notion of going to Paris without Sexton at No10 is an improbable one — even after his rotten day against England.
His status is complicated by the fact that Farrell has made him captain.
The view remains here that it was the correct decision in the shortterm, and one of the enduring competitors in Irish sport has earned the right to address one bad day out.
In the longer-term, establishing whether Byrne or long-time understudy Joey Carbery should succeed Sexton is an issue that could be usefully addressed on the summer tour to Australia.
But Sexton remains the player that should be trusted to lead and inspire.
PETER O’MAHONY
IT was a match against England that rekindled Peter O’Mahony’s Test career.
Jamie Heaslip got injured in the warm-up ahead of the sides’ game in Dublin in March 2017.
England were one win away from a second consecutive Grand Slam under Eddie Jones, but O’Mahony, a late replacement for Heaslip, led a redoubtable home performance that eked out a tight win.
The Munster flanker was magnificent, and stayed that way for the following 18 months.
He was not unique in being one who had a difficult World Cup, but he has struggled to rebound.
It was interesting that it was he who was dropped to accommodate Caelan Doris against Scotland, with CJ Stander starting on the blindside flank.
Injury to Doris meant O’Mahony played most of the game, but Stander has been excellent, arguably Ireland’s best player in the Six Nations so far.
O’Mahony will be under pressure after the impression Doris made off the bench in London, while a recall for Rhys Ruddock must be a growing likelihood.
JOHN FOGARTY
THE Ireland scrum coach talked last Friday of his excitement ahead of the visit to Twickenham.
It was his first away game as part of the Ireland coaching team, and one supposes the return journey made for a more subdued flight.
Fogarty should not be peppered with criticism over one defeat.
The new Ireland is three matches old, and even an age as unthinking and impatient as this one cannot expect seamless change inside a matter of weeks.
Nonetheless, the Ireland scrum was reduced to rubble at times. It was another consequence of the difference in power between the two teams, but that alone cannot explain Ireland’s difficulties.
The scrum, after all, is an area of technical complexity, which means power is not the only explanation for a particular outcome.
Tadhg Furlong was hopeful, before the game, that the Irish scrum would have a better time than it did in the World Cup warmup against England last August. But it was battered again, and Fogarty is the man who must lead the search for solutions.
DEVIN TONER
NO sooner was he back, celebrated for his resilience in absorbing
his World Cup disappointment, than Toner is being identified as a vulnerability.
He certainly suffered on Sunday, in comparison to the magnificent Maro Itoje but also to his secondrow partner, James Ryan.
Yet Toner is another who cannot be cast aside after one tough day.
Critics spoke of his inability to withstand English power at rucks, but most of his team-mates were blasted off the ball, too.
However, Toner’s long career has not been built around the type of physical aggression that makes Itoje so effective. He is not especially brutal in contact, either.
But he is a lineout specialist and he carries the ball effectively.
He is also vastly experienced and amidst the cries for change, that remains a quality to be prized.
Iain Henderson is now a more convincing starter, but Toner’s capacity to make an impact should not be too quickly dismissed.
CONOR MURRAY
OF all of the front-line stars, Murray is the most vulnerable.
This is partly because of the form of John Cooney — even if the latter had his moments of discomfort when playing the final half-hour against England — but mainly it is because of the flatness of Murray. He talked about this with candour in these pages before the start of the championship, and was adamant that he had the confidence in himself to justify his status as Ireland’s starting No9. That position is much more difficult to maintain after Sunday. His performance against Wales had been encouraging, but England made life hard for him. Box-kicking is a longstanding strength in his game, but his accuracy was off in that regard, to the benefit of the English back three. There is an important qualification that should be applied here. Murray (left) was playing behind a beaten forward pack, and half backs will always suffer when the forwards are in retreat. Yet Murray has been battling to return to his best for months now. Cooney’s chance could be imminent — or rugby could find its place in the world given a sobering context in the coming days. That, though, will not be enough to stem the calls for change. It’s a popular word in these times.