Farrell: France win shows World Cup hangover is out of our system

AFTER a stellar Six Nations display in Marseilles, Andy Farrell has drawn a line under Ireland’s World Cup disappointment as a new era for the national team began in emphatic fashion with a recordbreaking win on French soil.

Concerns that this Irish squad would still be feeling the effects of that quarter-final defeat by the All Blacks four months ago were quickly dispelled as the defending champions made a huge statement of intent.

Italy are next up at Aviva Stadium on Sunday and now the prospect of back-to-back Grand Slams is a real possibility for Farrell’s side. For the Ireland head coach, it’s onwards and upwards for this squad.

‘There’s no hangovers with us,’

Farrell stated after Friday night’s record win at Stade Velodrome.

‘There’s a realisation of where we’re at and where we need to go to next in what we learn, and that’s it. It’s three months down the line. That’s a big hangover if you can’t get over it in that time.

‘We talk about our past performances all the time. Sometimes we go back three years to say we learned this or whatever. So, of course we learnt big things from the All Blacks defeat but it’s not a hangover. It’s just a next step in how we progress as a team. That’s how it should be, in my opinion.’

On a night when Joe McCarthy, Jack Crowley and Calvin Nash stepped up, Farrell reserved special praise for Tadhg Beirne after the Munster lock delivered a brilliant try-scoring performance.

‘He’s some rugby player, isn’t he?

He’s across absolutely everything. His calling in the line-out was really composed. He had a chargedown. He’s all over every single ball on the floor. ‘For not the biggest of second rows, how he navigates himself around the pitch allows him to be a special player for us.

‘He’s been doing that time and time again over the last few years and he continues to get better.’