FARR &A WAY..

Andy’s plan is for every man in his squad to be comfortable with taking the initiative in games

ANDY Farrell is demanding buy-in for his evolution – and not just from his leaders.

The Ireland coach has his game-plan laid out but is keen on his players going off-script as well when the time is right as Ireland chase down the bonus point wins over Italy and France they’ll need to stay in with a shot for Six Nations glory.

“There’s a little bit of an evolution that needs to happen within our game,” said Farrell.

“You don’t want people to know 100 per cent how you’re going to play the whole time. We’re always tweaking things.

“I think one of our strengths is sticking to the plan. Also one of our work-ons would be being adaptable in and around the plan, for our boys to see the whole picture.

“I’m not just talking about the generals of the team, I’m talking about everyone now to play with a vision, to play with an appetite to see things – to make good decisions and to be able to execute on those decisions.

“It’s something that we’ve started. Maybe it’s a long enough old process but it’s something we’re going to stick to.

“It has to filter through. They need to bring something to the team and not just turn up.

“It i s n’ t j u st a b o u t the leadership group, it’s about everyone buying in and we drive this along together.”

On Wednesday, Farrell was finally able to get his Ireland squad together for the first time since th e st ar t of March , when the Italy game was already postponed and his preparations for the France encounter were halted. It’s been a long time since the last time his team played and so it all ended on a sour note, the defeat to England (inset).

“We dealt with it,” he said. “We had time, if you remember, we had a week’s break before we were going to France to analyse that game and break it down.

“We know how that game unfolded and we know what we needed to fix. That was at the forefront of everyone’s mind coming back into camp.

“But have we dwelled on that? Not too much.

“Obviously we’ve learned the lessons.

“I think we’re the only team that can look after their own destiny, really. Ten points would seal it for us.

“But I don’t want to b e disrespectful to Italy or France. All I want to do is make sure that we focus on ourselves and put our best foot forward and make sure that it’s a performance that we’re happy with.

“We’ ll be going full steam ahead.”

LET’S PLAY BALL Andy Farrell was keen to get his message across to his players yesterday