ANDY FARRELL ISN’T a man to engage in mind games or wars or words, offering little more than a wry smile in response to Eddie Jones’ playful quip that Ireland will be favourites when they take on England in Twickenham tomorrow.
“I love Eddie’s comments,” said Farrell, speaking after naming his team for Saturday’s Twickenham showdown.
“I love reading them. I think it’s great for the game. I love his character and charisma, I’ve learned a lot off him. I’ve worked under him. I’ve been a captain of a side for him. I’ve been in his company etc, but in answer to you question, I don’t see the need (to engage). I don’t see the need. I don’t get it sometimes but I like reading it. I think it’s intriguing.”
Jones’ comments are usually to be taken with a large scoop of salt, but did manage to spark some interesting conversations this week. Having experienced a few dark days in Twickenham recently, Ireland will be confident of securing a first win at the stadium since 2018. Maybe they are favourites, and maybe they think as much.
Ireland are a better team now than the ones that lost in London in 2019 (twice) and 2020 (twice), and are also – to use Jones’ word of the week – a more ‘cohesive’ side than the one that blitzed England in Dublin last year.
Yet for all their improvement, Ireland are still to tick off that elusive big win on the road under Farrell.
“It’s part of the journey, isn’t it? It’s part of the next step for us as a team to be making sure we go to places like this and be at our best because we know that England are going to come at us, we know that they’re going to cause us problems but we’re confident in our own ability.”
Ireland held similar ambitions when they went to Paris last month, only to fall behind with just a minute played, leading to one of the more obvious ‘learnings’ to be taken from the experience.
“Yeah, more awareness. You can always plan for a good start but the opposition have something to say about that, but making sure that you don’t go into your shell because things do happen like that.
We’ve been to Twickenham before and as you know that has happened to us. On a couple of occasions we was told that they could have declared at half-time with the performance that they had and they played very well that day, so there’s lessons we need to learn and make sure that we address them ourselves.”
Some of the talk in England this week has suggested that a poor finish to the Six Nations could see Jones lose his job. There were similar whispers around Farrell last year when Ireland were struggling to click, before it all fell together with that final day 32-18 win over England in Dublin.
“I never doubted anything,” Farrell continued, reflecting on this time last year.
“First and foremost, if you’ve been involved in top level sport for long enough, you realise that you have to be able to take the rough with the smooth. Obviously the outside noise creeps in every now and again but it’s up to you to realise that what is going to make your team better is you just being yourself. So, I suppose experience just allows you to bat away the noise and get on with the job in hand. Eddie is the most experienced man in world rugby at that.”
Farrell has made six changes to his side for tomorrow’s game, most of which were to be expected as Johnny Sexton, Hugo Keenan, Andrew Conway, Bundee Aki and James Ryan all return to the fold, while Cian Healy replaces the injured Andrew Porter.
Mack Hansen will feel unlucky to miss out on the matchday 23 given his blistering start to life as an international rugby player, while Jack Conan has to settle for a place on the bench again as Munster veteran Peter O’Mahony continues in the back row.
Since being red carded in last year’s Six Nations defeat to Wales, O’Mahony has tended to start Ireland’s bigger Test on the bench, making three starts – Japan, Argentina, Italy – alongside five further caps as a replacement.
“I’ve been unbelievably impressed with how he’s handled himself,” Farrell continues.
“Pete’s started a lot of games for Ireland and has probably been top dog for a number of years in the past. He’s been in the squad and in the last couple of years he’s not been in the team, been on the bench or whatever and he has never changed one iota.
He has an unbelievably strong character to make sure he’s just a team-first type of bloke and within all that I actually think his performance levels at the weekend and how we see him on a daily basis at training has improved.”
Three games into the tournament, England are still looking to discover their best form, although a big performance never feels too far from the surface with a Jones team.
Ireland’s graph has been much easier to read, and Farrell feels the squad are in a good place as they close on their final two fixtures, with a Triple Crown – and potentially a Six Nations title – still on the cards.
“We’re a good side. We’re a good side that’s hopefully getting better. We’re in a position again to still be in with a shout of winning the competition, which is great.
“To stay in that hunt until the final week you’ve got to win big games, and this is a big game.”
Comedian Michael Fry is our special guest on this week’s episode of The Front Row, in partnership with Guinness. Joining host Seán Burke, Eimear Considine and Murray Kinsella, he chats about his family’s rugby background and his short-lived playing days, before using his musical ear to rank the anthems of each Guinness Six Nations team. Click here to subscribe or listen below:
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