Unlucky Farrell will need to get rub of the green
ANDY Farrell has gone through an array of experiences since he took charge of Ireland just over a year ago but at this stage he must be wondering if he’s ever going to enjoy a bit of good luck in this job as one misfortune follows another.
A lot of the setbacks have either been inherited or self-inflicted.
Bad luck in their opening game of this season’s Six Nations had nothing to do with Peter O’Mahony becoming the first Irish player since Willie Duggan in 1977 to be sent off in the competition, or Billy Burns’ inability to hit the basic requirement with that late penalty against Wales when he failed to find touch.
They are problems the players and coaches have to take ownership of.
But at a time when Farrell is still trying to find his feet after such a disrupted year since taking over from Joe Schmidt, he really could have done without skipper Johnny Sexton receiving another stray hit to the head against Wales. Ditto the head injury which vicecaptain James Ryan picked up early last weekend which rules him out today, and the one which leaves promising back rower Caelan Doris sidelined indefinitely.
Jacob Stockdale has missed the start of the campaign and it’s not known when he will be available, while replacement loosehead Dave Kilcoyne, with 40 caps and a decade of Munster grind under his belt, was ruled out midweek through injury and has been replaced on the bench by three-cap Ed Byrne.
The Irish halfbacks have been automatic choices for the best part of a decade so when scrumhalf Conor Murray pulled out with a hamstring injury shortly before the team was to be announced, Farrell could be forgiven for wondering when he is going to get a break.
The net result is that while he retains five of the backs which started against Wales, he has a half-back partnership in Burns and Jamison Gibson-Park, below, who have 11 caps and three starts between them.
They have never started together and have played a total of 43 minutes with each other in two segments against Wales in November and last week.
Farrell has placed his faith in Burns rather than bring in Ross Byrne and he’s confident the former England U20 fly-half will recover from his nightmare cameo last weekend.
“When you get bumps in the road, you just deal with what is in front of you and you keep going,” Farrell said. “Obviously, we’ve lost a few players but we have others who have come in. Billy is one of those. He’s a resilient character.
“The pressure that we put on ourselves is all that matters to us. The outside pressure is irrelevant, really. If we let that seep in, it does become a distraction.”
A lot of Irish fans would have wanted John Cooney in the squad. The scrumhalf has a good relationship with Burns in Ulster and is also a quality kicking option but with Murray out Gibson-Park, with just two starts under his belt, goes opposite Antoine Dupont with the uncapped Craig Casey from Munster on the bench.
Elsewhere, 30-year-old back row Rhys Ruddock, who won the first of his 26 caps 11 years ago, finally makes his first Six Nations start in a side where Iain Henderson becomes Ireland’s 108th captain and Cian Healy their most capped prop (106) and fifth in the overall ranking.
Farrell needs an awful lot to go in his favour if he is to avoid Ireland losing their opening two games for the first time ever in the Six Nations — it hasn’t happened since 1998 before Italy were brought in — but, perhaps, most of all he needs a rub of the green.