‘We can definitely still win the Six Nations’
Farrell believes his side can go to Paris on the final day and spoil the French party
FOR all that Andy Farrell has been around the block, facing the music as the main man after a chastening defeat was a new experience for him.
To his credit, he didn’t attempt to downplay the bitterly disappointing nature of the defeat in Twickenham by coming up with redundant excuses.
His side had been beaten up all over the pitch and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
Farrell maintained his composure throughout what must have felt like a difficult press conference as he attempted to explain why Ireland had faltered so badly for the third consecutive time against England.
The 44-year-old shouldered plenty of the responsibility and while that is all well and good, the players ought to feel that they let themselves and their new head coach down.
Farrell’s mild manner couldn’t be more different from Eddie Jones’s snide approach.
Performance
Despite having just watched his team put in another world-class performance, the England manager was eager to settle as many scores as possible with members of the English media.
Having quipped that his side would have declared at half-time if it had been a cricket match, Jones was later asked, in a quieter setting, what he had meant by the remark.
“Probably a throwaway line, mate,” he said. “I probably need to apologise for it again. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
“I know you are not allowed say anything that is a little bit different here. So I apologise. I apologise for making a comment that is not in the rugby sense. Apologies.”
It was all very immature and rather unnecessary, but when Jones’s comments were put to Farrell in a similarly more relaxed environment away from the glare of the television camera, his facial expression told its own story.
“Is that what he said?” Farrell asked, eyebrows nearly lifting off his face.
“No, I thought… there are plenty of teams who would have been here, and us included in the past, that when a side... England, they would have obviously been brimming going in at half-time, they would probably have thought they would try and get to a cricket score, but they didn’t.
“We can give ourselves credit for that. We started the second half pretty well with a bit of intent and a good side like they are, they came back.
“But we finished the game off strong and we are in it, you know we are in a competition.
“England have won a couple, so have we and we have lost one, and we have Italy next up and we need a top performance in that one.”
And that’s ultimately what it boils down to for Ireland now, because although they were worryingly off the pace against the old enemy on Sunday, they are still in the title hunt.
Assuming the game against Italy goes ahead in two weeks’ time, Ireland should have another five points to their name before the daunting trip to Paris.
If, and yes it is a very big ‘if’, France were to slip up in Scotland, and depending on how England fare against Wales, Ireland could conceivably arrive at the final day sitting at the top of the table.
For all that France have been hugely impressive thus far, they are still France, meaning they have the potential to capitulate at any given moment.
This new breed do look more assured, yet we have been down this road before with Les Bleus, which is perhaps why Farrell was also keen to hold fire on lavishing them with praise just yet.
“There will be ups and downs in their competition as well,” Farrell insisted.
“So it’s up to us to make sure that when we go there, that we try and not allow France to play the game they want to.
“But first things first, let’s make sure we have got the right attitude, right intent and right want to get the
‘Let’s make sure we have got the right attitude, right intent and right want to get the result’
result we need against Italy.”
Beating Italy at home will be a formality, regardless of what team Farrell selects to take the field at the Aviva Stadium.
However, it remains to be seen what kind of lasting damage last weekend’s thumping defeat at Twickenham will have on the players.
Ireland never recovered from the Six Nations loss to Jones’s men in Dublin last year, so Farrell must be mindful of the scar tissue that may linger.
However, he is very much taking the glass-half-full approach, as he is adamant that Ireland can still be crowned Six Nations champions.
“One hundred per cent, I definitely do (believe),” he added.
“We are in the same position as a few other teams and we need to be disappointed with this.
“Some might say the scoreline flattered us, but at the end of the day it is a 12-point margin.
“We could have rolled over against a side that were desperate in England, but we didn’t and we gave ourselves as good a chance as any.
“We will take the learnings and when a side is desperate to stay in the championship, take the learnings from why that gave them so much front-foot ball and a mentality that was a bit stronger than ours.
“We’ll take the hurt as well. We’ll take the disappointment and again, we need to make sure we get it to the last weekend.”