IRELAND’S LATEST TRAINING camp under Joe Schmidt lasted less than 24 hours in Enfield, but the brief gathering allowed new defence coach Andy Farrell to introduce himself and his methods.
A 44-man squad gathered on Sunday night last, before dispersing the following afternoon, as Schmidt took advantage of the fact that none of the Irish provinces are involved in the European club semi-finals this weekend.
All eyes in Enfield were focused on the June tour to South Africa.
Ireland went through this year’s Six Nations without a defence coach, Les Kiss having moved into his role as director of rugby at Ulster following the World Cup.
Schmidt admitted that overseeing attack and defence, with Simon Easterby and Richie Murphy aiding his work in the latter, had been a stretch. Now the Kiwi head coach has a big voice alongside him to oversee what he hopes will be a big improvement in Ireland’s defence.
Ireland vice-captain Jamie Heaslip is one of those who worked with Farrell on the 2013 Lions tour, during which the Englishman was a major influence.
Captain Rory Best, Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray were similarly impressed by Farrell on that trip and Schmidt has alluded to the fact that his players having spoken so positively about the former England assistant coach was one of the reasons Ireland approached him to succeed Kiss.
Those who hadn’t worked with Farrell before were similarly taken by the 40-year-old rugby league legend, who had a brief stint as an advisor to Munster in recent months as he waited for his IRFU contract to kick in.
“We were down there for the day and it was great,” said Heaslip this afternoon. “We’re very lucky to have worked with Faz before and he is a great coach, a great bloke.
“He’s a big man and wait until you see him in the gym. He’s scary because he can still shift tin, and I’ve seen him do some fitness sessions. The man is still an animal!”
With Schmidt and Ireland having such limited time together in Enfield, the bulk of the overnight stay was dedicated to Farrell getting the players up to speed on his defensive expectations.
“We only had one actual training session on Monday and it was just getting on his page, getting into his system,” said Heaslip. “It’s a blend of what we’ve been trying to evolve prior to him and then obviously what he’s bringing in, bolting on.
“He’s blending in with our language but then also adding in some new trigger words, I suppose. It was good. We had just over 45 minutes of the different ways he wants to use his D and it was good.”
The fact that South Africa have just appointed a new head coach in Allister Coetzee means Ireland did not spend too much time analysing the Boks’ attack, particularly because the new boss is expected to bring many fresh faces into the fold.
You’ve got a new coach in there, so you don’t know what he’s going to do,” said Heaslip. “There’s going to be guys from the World Cup, then they’re going to be picking new players, so you don’t know what squad they have.
“They’re the two serious factors in terms of knowing what you’re going to be defending! They didn’t show us too much of that, but it was about planting the seed of how he [Farrell] wants the system to work and what his core values in the system are, the non-negotiables.”
Ireland’s nine tries conceded in this year’s Six Nations was the highest total they’ve given up in the championship since Schmidt took over, and in any year since they shipped 10 in the 2008 competition.
With that in mind, the appointment of Farrell would appear to be timely. The South African tour will provide a demanding first test of the Englishman’s impact.
“They’re man mountains, some of them,” said Heaslip of the Boks. “Attacking systems are getting more and more… not complicated, but more evolved. There’s multiple threats that you’ve got to respect that teams are creating.
“That’s off the back of the analysis that’s going on in the game and teams naturally evolving, looking at different spaces to attack and coming up with different ways.
The D has to evolve as well to stay up at that pace and especially against a side like South Africa, who have a lot of different attacking threats from their backs.
“The core of their team, I feel at times, is their pack, which gives them such good go-forward ball in open play and also really, really good attacking first-phase ball. A team that can offer 90 to 100% of good quality ball off scrum and lineout is a very, very hard team to defend.
“When you put them down in the 22, they’ve good exits and your opportunities get fewer and fewer and fewer. You need to be able to create those attacking opportunities off your D, which is massively important.”
We await Faz’s impact.
The Bank of Ireland Leinster Rugby Camps were launched by Jamie Heaslip, Jack McGrath and Hayden Triggs at a pop-up training session in St. Mary’s National School, Ranelagh. The camps will run in 27 different venues across the province throughout July and August. Visit www.leinsterrugby.ie/camps for more information.
