IRELAND BOSS ANDY Farrell acknowledged that his team remain short of their best after they edged home against Argentina, holding on for a 22-19 win in Dublin.
The narrow victory means Ireland bounced back from last weekend’s disappointing defeat to New Zealand but it was another inconsistent Irish performance.
Three clinical first-half tries left Ireland in control with a 22-9 lead at half time but they failed to score in the second half and had to cling on with the clock in the red and Argentina attacking in their 22.
Farrell said the overriding feeling was delight after beating an Argentina team that has improved hugely under head coach Felipe Contepomni but the Ireland boss knows there is much more in his team as they look towards clashes with Fiji and Australia.
In making just one change to his starting XV after the New Zealand game, Farrell had admitted many of his players were lucky to be going again tonight. He got the response he wanted from them only “in parts” against Argentina.
“I think if I can try and sum up where we’re at, I think when you’re looking at two top sides that we’ve played in the first two weeks, it looks like we’re still trying to find our feet in the intensity of the full 80 minutes, for that top 1% gains.
“Obviously, New Zealand and Argentina have been playing those games for the last five months.
“It looks like our lads, some of them, are a little bit shy of that type of intensity. Hopefully, we’ll build it through this month and we’ll see the best of it in the next two games.”
Watching his side concede 13 penalties for the second week in a row was frustrating for Farrell.
Those penalty concessions lifted pressure on Argentina too often and allowed Contepomi’s men to flip the pressure back onto Ireland.
“It’s something that we’ve been outstanding on over the last 10 years actually,” said Farrell.
“But certainly it’s not done out of players going out there to be ill-disciplined. It’s coming from the right place, if that may sound stupid.
“All they’re trying to do is do the right thing by their team, They just need to be a little more patient individually and trust the team and what they’re about.”
There were a few other overlaps from last weekend as Ireland forced things in attack at times, giving up a few promising positions in the second half with those errors.
That was another frustration for Farrell but he was keen to stress the good stuff too.
“There were a few things we needed to learn from last week and some things that we didn’t address on the field,” said Farrell. “But we said last week we had a chance of winning ugly. We did that this week, that’s a plus.
“We showed really good intent in how we started the game. We were direct, we were piling into them, we were hard to handle playing off quick ball. On the back of that, if we get that Tadhg Beirne score [that was ruled out for a knock-on], it justifies the score a little bit because of the dominance that we had.
“But we know the kind of side they are, they’ve improved out of sight.
“And the pressure they put on us, and that we put ourselves, obviously brought them back into the game and to cut a long story short, we held our nerve towards the end and just about got there.”
Won’t improve until the coaching staff changes. O’Connell has had years to sort out the lineout and simply cannot do it.
Goodman was a disaster at Leinster and has now transferred that entirely to Ireland.
Farrell needs to get over his refusal to move on from players and pick on form. Izuchukwu and Prendergast are two of the form players in the country yet have no minutes because of the same zero impact performances out of O’Mahony and Beirne. Hansen has been woeful since coming back from injury yet still just strolls straight back into the team. Herring and Kelleher have now failed too show up at all two weeks running while Heffernan and McCarthy had shown great form for their respective provinces.
@teuO6nLS: beirne should be back into the 2nd row and izzy given a shot at 6 to at least get a proper heavy carrier in our back 5 in the pack. Doris has been very poor in both games but seems immune from any kind of criticism, the lions captaincy is looking like a fantasy
@teuO6nLS: what a load of bollox
@teuO6nLS: average joe is a big problem for Ireland. Hes simply too heavy to lift in the lineout and hence cuts down our options.
@teuO6nLS: did we lose the game you twit? What are you expecting you hubris filled Clown with big blue glssses. Are we supposed to beat everybody out the gate game in and game out? When did this paradigm arrive? You are a condescending know it all who probably never played on any pitch yourself with any impact.
@JJB: Given the score at half time you’d have to say the final result was poor. Missed tackle count again too high, same with penalties conceded. Handling errors better than last week but plenty of room for improvement imo. Could’ve drawn could’ve lost. Take the win and move on
@teuO6nLS: Keller her one of the best players for us tonight !! Did you watch the game
@teuO6nLS: Prendergast???????????
@Lulu: there’s 2 of them
@Philly Ryan: MOTOM? “The lock made 35 metres, 14 tackles and 11 carries, with his contribution playing a significant role in getting the hosts back to winning ways”
So, Ireland tried to play an expansive game but – as was really apparent when they were in possession with 90 seconds to go – one out runners continue to get themselves isolated, ball protection is poor and they give up costly penalties. Missed tackles, penalty concessions, bad kicks, the only difference between this week and last was the dry conditions – fewer dropped balls. Otherwise it was just as bad.
Strangely, you couldn’t point to a specific player and say they played badly – it was systematic errors and most of that goes down to the skills coach.
Literally every time Ireland had possession they looked like they were going to be turned over.
@PatN: We won.
@PatN: I thought the lineout was better. There was still some losses but they seemed to be individual rather than system errors. Scrum was OK v a good Arg scrum. Both were much bigger problems v NZ. Overall 1st half was good and we should have been further ahead but 2nd half, we looked tired and bereft of idea and composure. Ref was ignoring Arg indiscipline at the breakdown which allied to the fact he was eagle eyed on our lack of discipline meant we had absolutely no flow in our game second half
Why don’t we just take the 3 points more often?
@James Murphy: Yes there were two occasions I did wonder if 3 points would have sank there confidence in a second half come back.
@James Murphy: Yes, we need to be winning handsomely to turn down an easy 3 points.
Too much talk about improving. I thought they were worse yesterday than the all blacks game. Remember Ireland scored 2 tries when Argentina was down to 14 players early in the game. I be worried about leadership in the team too. No ideas and losing ball in important times. Not impressed.
@Simon Dwyer: poor you not impressed. Ireland won playing below par: to me that is cause for celebration. Where did your lofty expectations and hubris come from?
@Simon Dwyer: People are dying to be not impressed these days, especially here
@Simon Dwyer: They absolutely were not worse over the 80 mins. You can’t mark playing against 14 as a negative for the team, they can only play what’s in front of them and you have no way of knowing they wouldn’t have achieved the same against 15. Statements like “not impressed” belay such an arrogance to be honest, as if you are some Roman emperor writing to give the thumbs up and down. Absolute notions. There are many people who pretend to be supporters that need to take a long hard look at themselves. Perfection seems to be all that’s acceptable and it’s largely unattainable on a consistent basis in sport.
A possible Fiji squad (based ONLY on the players fit and available / selected in the squad currently):
1. Porter
2. Heffernan
3. Clarkson
4. McCarthy
5. Beirne
6. C. Prendergast
7. Timoney
8. Doris
9. Casey
10. S Prendergast
11. Stockdale
12. Aki
13. Osborne
14. Nash
15. Keenan
16. Herring
17. Healy
18. Bealham
19. Baird
20. Izuchukwu
21. Gibson Park
22. Frawley
23. Ringrose
Lack of depth mostly evident at: 1, 2, 3, 12/13 and 15 in my view.
@Ross Elwood: Baird’s second failed HIA of the season already so he won’t be involved unfortunately
If new Zealand and Argentina beat France it’s not too really that bad at all.
Really ireland are falling. Apart.world cup forget about about it
@frank walsh: Sober up Frank
@frank walsh: World cup is years away lad. If that’s all you care about then I pity you
Strangely, the earlier received wisdom used to be that NH sides beat the SH ones in Autumn because the latter were too tired at the end of their season. That they are battle hardened is a more recent explanation, especially regarding the lack of NH success in the RWC
For a team in transition I think we did well enough . Don’t really care about winning every game or being no. 1 in rankings as long as new players are getting a shot. Young inexperienced 10s, a new captain and a fair few players in their twilight years.
Waiting for Chris to come on and write about how good Clarkson’s scrummaging was :)
@Oran Burns: won one, lost one I think.
@brian o’leary: Looks a decent prospect tho, big unit
@brian o’leary: His first scrum was a free kick to Ireland, then in 2nd half he won a penalty and the pen against Ireland was on Porter. I was worried about him as he’s been good but not great for Leinster but I thought he really stepped up, serious prospect