Farrell: I’m so proud of my lads..that was a show of real bottle
Ireland coach Andy Farrell hailed the courage of his players after they became the first Irish team to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand yesterday morning to tie up their July series 1-1.
The 23-12 victory in Dunedin was the first for Ireland in 14 attempts on New Zealand soil going back to 1976 and gave them a fourth win in their last seven matches against the All Blacks.
Farrell said: “It’s a privilege to be here and witness what we just witnessed with the boys going toe-to-toe and being so courageous from minute one.
“They come over here and know that there is a piece of history for them in their careers. We talk about it to them, ‘Somebody’s going to do it sometime soon and it might as well be you.’
“They keep turning up and breaking their little records and I’m so proud of them. They’ve earned the right for next week to go into a decider.”
The third Test will take place in the New Zealand capital Wellington, where Farrell as defence coach helped to guide the British & Irish Lions to a test victory in 2017.
Farrell was impressed that his team did not lose their focus, especially in the first half when three yellow cards and the dismissal of All Blacks prop Angus Ta’avao made for some chaotic moments.
He said: “We know that the All Blacks traditionally come out better in game two, especially here under the roof, and we were as courageous as we were last week.
“We came out of the blocks quickly and put them under some pressure and scored some tries. The game wasn’t perfect but we were calm, we didn’t get sucked into the allure of the game.
“Them going down to 14 or 13 men, we kept playing the game that was in front of us. Again, it wasn’t perfect, we gave a few penalties away and gave them access but we stayed in the fight.
“We were the ones who played for 80 minutes this week.”
Owen Farrell was the hero for England Down Under as they weathered a second-half storm from Australia to clinch a 25-17 victory at Suncorp Stadium that also takes their series to a decider in Sydney next Saturday.
An early try from Billy Vunipola and Owen Farrell’s kicking helped Eddie Jones’ tourists into a 17- 0 lead at the interval.
The Aussies came roaring back in the second period though to close the gap to just five points but England held on to level the series at 1-1.
Farrell said: “We know what we’re capable of, we’ve got an unbelievably exciting team, it’s just about getting people going and I thought we did that from the off.”