Ireland will give Farrell more time

HEAD coach Andy Farrell will be given time to revive Ireland’s fortunes after the first year of his tenure was assessed as “an average return” by the IRFU.

Defeats to England and France saw the Irish finish third in the Guinness Six Nations, while they suffered another loss to Eddie Jones’ side in the current Autumn Nations Cup tournament.

Farrell, who stepped up from assistant coach to succeed Joe Schmidt after last year’s World Cup, also came in for criticism following Sunday’s unconvincing win over minnows Georgia.

IRFU performance director David Nucifora admits the team have room for improvement but stressed it is a long-term project and patience will be required during an experimental period.

“Obviously (Sunday’s) performance was disappointing, wasn’t up to speed. You heard Andy Farrell speak after the game – it wasn’t something that he or any of the coaching staff or the players were particularly satisfied with,” the Australian said.

“I suppose at the moment where we sit, the Six Nations – winning our home games, losing the two away games – you would call it an average return for us.

“It’s something we’re obviously looking to build on and improve.

“We’ve used 40 players in the short number of games that we’ve had, which is an extraordinary number of players.

“But that’s what this period of time was always going to be about – looking at players we wouldn’t normally have a chance to look at, combinations we wouldn’t normally experiment with, to see how they perform.

“Even though the performance (on Sunday) was below par, we still have a lot of confidence that this team will turn it around next week.

“For us, more importantly, it’s longer term, looking at the Six Nations.

“By the time we get to the end of the ‘21 Six Nations, we’ll have a far better understanding of where we are going forward.”