AS THE REST of us woke this morning, Ireland were already over in France.
They flew straight to Biarritz on Sunday in a bid to simulate some of the travelling they’ll have to do during the World Cup. Their French training base is in the city of Tours, but they’ll move to the match host cities on Thursdays and then return to Tours on Sundays.
As Andy Farrell explained, Ireland are also looking forward to an 8.45pm local kick-off time as they see how the late World Cup kick-off times will affect their build-up.
Ireland will come home for a few days after their clash with Samoa, with the final 33-man squad announced next Monday, but this almost feels like the start of the tournament given they won’t play at home again.
As such, it was pleasing to continue their winning streak in Dublin last Saturday as victory over England made it 16 in a row. But Farrell wasn’t completely happy with their performance. He had some tough words for his players at half time.
“I thought that if we really believed that we wanted to push ourselves like we said we were going to do that we could capitalise on that,” said Farrell.
“And I didn’t think we had that cutting edge in the first half, that grit we needed to be able to do that. I thought we should have been better off on the scoreboard.
“But I certainly suppose… what goes with that is it was the first game and people trying to find a way even though we’ve talked about them not finding their way into the first game.
“You’ve have got to be at your best. I felt we just weren’t at the type of edge that we wanted to be. We found it a bit more in the second half.”
The lineout was one area of concern, although Farrell is sure it will improve.
“I thought it was a good day for us, for our learning, England have a fantastic line-out defence, there is no getting away from that, so all credit to them.
“A few options that Paul [O'Connell] won’t be best pleased with execution-wise but the best thing about today really was how we kept our nerve when things weren’t going too well and found our way back into that.
“Some of the calling from James [Ryan] in particular and our execution in the second half was much better.
But the most worrying thing to come from Saturday was the foot injury for Dan Sheehan.
Farrell sounded a little downbeat about the hooker as he faced into a scan. The Ireland boss seems confident that Rónan Kelleher will recover from a hamstring injury before the World Cup but Sheehan has made himself first-choice at hooker.
Farrell said he doesn’t yet know if he will tell his players who has made the final World Cup before or after the Samoa game, which takes place in Bayonne’s Stade Jean-Dauger.
The Ireland boss pointed out that his current thinking could be changed by events this week.
“Well obviously we have stuff going on in the back of our mind,” said Farrell.
“I don’t know what’s going to go on in Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday or Friday with the captain’s run over there in Bayonne. All sorts could happen so keeping people connected is important, but we’ve obviously got a good idea of how that’s going to unfold.”
Ireland are likely to field a strong side again this weekend, having been close to full strength against the English.
“Getting the right balance because obviously after this week there’s two weeks then before the start of the World Cup so it just getting the right balance of who could do with the extra week or two as far as pre-season is concerned,” said Farrell.
“Who could do with some more game time, what’s the likelihood the team going forward against Romania and how that looks and trying to balance all that out.”
It will be interesting to see whether Farrell goes with Ross Byrne again at out-half or brings Jack Crowley back in given that Johnny Sexton still has one more game in his suspension.
“He did well, he did well,” said Farrell of Byrne’s performance.
“He’s very clear. He’s very good at running the week and very clear of what he wants from the players around him so therefore there’s good clarity. There’s people who can fit in around that, that can play their game around that. So, his control is very good.”
