Rory Keane reports from Port Elizabeth
IN TERMS OF immediate impact, Andy Farrell’s opening match in charge of the Irish defence was a stunning introduction.
When longstanding defence guru Les Kiss stepped down from his role after last year’s World Cup, Joe Schmidt began a worldwide search to replace the hugely popular Australian, who had helped Ireland secure a Grand Slam and two Six Nations championships during his seven-year stint.
Schmidt didn’t have to look far when Farrell – along with Stuart Lancaster, Graham Rowntree and Mike Catt – was relieved of his duties following England’s disastrous World Cup campaign.
It was an easy choice for Ireland. Despite England’s failings, Farrell still had a big reputation while several Irish players were hugely impressed with his input during the 2013 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.
The terms of Farrell’s England contract termination meant he was unable to begin his new role until after the recent Six Nations with Schmidt and Simon Easterby sharing the defensive duties during a difficult tournament.
With the former dual-code England international on board for this daunting three-Test tour, Farrell got down to work and what an impact he made in that stunning first Test victory.
Down to 14 men after 23 minutes following CJ Stander’s red card, Ireland delivered a phenomenal defensive effort to secure an historic victory at Newlands. The visitors were forced to make 147 tackles that night, understandably missing 19, to finish with an 89% success rate. Not bad for your first game in charge.
Despite leaking three tries and 22 points in the final quarter of last weekend’s dramatic second Test, Ireland once again competed 89% of their tackles, 117 made with 14 missed, with most of those occurring in the frantic final 18 minutes.
Farrell’s impact has been apparent in other areas as well. Ireland’s line speed for the opening 140 minutes of this series has been rapid and aggressive, they have targeted the ball carrier with huge success on several occasions – Paddy Jackson’s strip on a rampaging Siya Kolisi and Robbie Henshaw ripping the ball from Damian de Allende are just two moments that stick out during that first-half assault in Johannesburg.
Another huge defensive performance will be required tomorrow if Ireland are to have a chance of claiming this series. If Ireland set the bar high in Cape Town, then that surely is the benchmark for Farrell and this squad going forward?
“I don’t think we’ve set the bar anywhere yet,” said Farrell following Ireland’s captain’s run in Port Elizabeth this afternoon.
“I think it was an heroic performance in the first Test, down to 13 and 14 men. It was an unbelievable performance of true grit but we’ve said to the lads this week: we’re looking for a benchmark performance to take forward and I think there’s more in us, a more complete game, and we’ll need to show that at the weekend.”
Nothing but pure grit and resilience for 80 minutes will suffice this weekend. Ireland will need to be far more aggressive but they must improve technically as well; their line speed, spacing, communication and tackling technique will need to reach a new level at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
“The boys, after every game and after every training session, what we need to improve on and there’s plenty which we need to improve on, which is great,” Farrell continued.
“You would expect, wouldn’t you, that to win a Test series in South Africa you need to be at your best. We can still improve and hopefully that benchmark game is coming this weekend.”
After three weeks on tour, the former Saracens coach is finally beginning to settle into his role as Ireland’s defensive coordinator.
Having signed a four-year deal that will take him all the way past the 2019 World Cup, it looks like a great bit of business from the IRFU.
“It’s everything that I hoped it would be,” Farrell added.
“I said when I started the job that it’s a fantastic time to come into this job because of the games we’re going to go through in my first year. A Test series in South Africa – it really doesn’t get any harder than that.
“Like I said before, I think we’re in a fantastic situation now at 1-1, a chance to win a Test series 2-1 and find out and give the players the experience of the cauldron of a Test match that’s going to be at the weekend to see if we can or we can’t. I think it’s fantastic for the players, it’s certainly fantastic for me.
“You find out a lot about what need to improve on, what we’ve got and what we’ve certainly seen that.”
The length of Ireland’s season has been well-documented at this stage, almost a year has passed since Rory Best arrived for a pre-World Cup training camp.
Ahead of Ireland’s 17th Test of the season and a third consecutive battle with the Springboks, Best insisted that this squad have one 80-minute performance left in them before they consign this lengthy campaign to history.
“Yeah, look I think it’s like what Faz said, the couple of changes last week freshened things up and it kept the boys on the toes because there was a lot of good performances in the first Test and boys came in and really stepped up last week, for certainly a large part of the game,” said the Ulster hooker.
“In terms of the body, look it’s massive Test match, it’s an opportunity to go out and win a Test series in South Africa.
“I think there were times when you got to the last game of the season and you’ve one foot on the beach and that’s definitely not the case now. You can tell the way we went about training on Tuesday and Thursday, there was a real intensity about it.
“I’ve said when we first arrived in South Africa, the fact that we’ve had those breaks over the European weeks, it’s not what you want but it’s really freshened up.
“With three games in a row, it’s just we knew we were coming here to do it. Look, it’s been tough and we knew all of that but look we have one big push left, one massive 80 minutes to try and do something that no other Irish team has done and very few touring teams have done – and that’s win a Test series in South Africa.”
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