IRELAND ARE DOING their best to turn the page and focus on Italy, but there was only one game on people’s minds today as the Irish camp held their first media session since Paris.

Scrum specialist John Fogarty, whose area went well against France, was the coach sent out today to talk to the media about a thoroughly disappointing performance last Thursday.

While supporters and pundits try to figure out what the 36-14 defeat to les Bleus says about Irish rugby and its trajectory, Fogarty insisted that Ireland haven’t been thinking about the bigger picture.

They’ve just been speaking about what went wrong in Paris and how they can make things better this Saturday in Dublin against Italy.

“There’s probably still a fair bit of frustration,” said Fogarty of the mood in Ireland camp so far this week.

“I think initially there was huge disappointment in the playing group at the performance, particularly in the first half. I think there’s still a frustration within the group, which is fairly natural to have because they understand what they’re capable of and what they served up wasn’t that.

“And some of the reviews, we’re turning the page really on France and into Italy.

“So there’s a mix of frustration and some guys getting the opportunity to put on an Irish jersey at home in a Six Nations game.”

Fogarty said that some of their discussions post-Paris have revolved around “making sure we front up as an Irish team,” touching on their character and representing where they come from.

Ireland trained at their HPC today. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

That’s because they felt those things were missing in the first half against the French.

Most of that stuff is shown through the physicality, which Ireland clearly felt they lacked until it was too late.

“It’s a collision-based game,” said Fogarty.

“And if you’re on the receiving end of collisions defensively, you’re always going to be chasing your tail. You’re getting up off the ground, you might commit too many numbers to a ruck, now you’re down numbers, and there’s a knock-on effect.

“Mistakes are being made and the feeling in general starts to feel like we’re off. And then players can tend to suppress themselves a fraction. The mood is off.

“On the other side in attack, if we’re carrying and we’re getting belted, we’re again putting too many numbers into a ruck. Our attack doesn’t feel quite right, guys are again starting to tighten up or quieten up. And they’re not being themselves.

“I didn’t see us being ourselves because we were on the receiving end of a French team that came out of the blocks.

“They hit us hard and hit us quick and played on top of us. And I think we lost 20 minutes there where we really started to suppress ourselves a little bit and they racked up the points.

“Half time was a tough one. Andy made things very clear at half time where they needed to go, the direction we needed to go in as a team. And we got a response. It’s in those moments that there’s the frustration I’m talking about in letting that happen.”

The peculiar thing is that Ireland spent all of the build-up to the game talking about how pivotal physicality would be against a powerful French team.

Andy Farrell at Ireland training today. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

The lesson from their 2025 defeat to the French in Dublin was supposed to be that they had lost too many collisions.

So why was that element of their game deficient again? Fogarty indicated that Ireland may have over-focused on technical and tactical preparation over getting the players into the right frame of mind to be as physical as they needed to be.

“It’s something we’ve talked about,” he said. “You go back over everything, don’t you?

“You go back over everything and you kind of say, was there clarity? Did we drive clarity? Did we give them enough opportunities to show intent in the week? Did we highlight that? Etc, etc, etc.

“One of the things Irish teams do really well is in a short space of time, they get their detail ready.

“Something I’ve been thinking about is, have I been focused too much on the tactical, technical stuff and not enough on the intent side of things?

“There’s a lot to do when they come out of the provinces in a short space of time to get ready for a game. It’s the same for every other team.

“But I wonder sometimes – I’m not talking about the other coaches – I wonder sometimes for me, do I not lean into the intent side of things and how we’re going to make each other feel in those moments as opposed to the technical, tactical stuff?

“That’s what I reflected on. Does that have an effect on how I’m preparing the guys? I can’t say how the lads were feeling and how they got to that point where they didn’t just deliver physically. But that’s what I reflected on.”

Fogarty confirmed that tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong came through Ireland’s team training session today at their high performance centre in Abbotstown and said, “It’s brilliant to have a player like him back”.

The experienced Leinster man missed the France game but looks set to return from his calf injury this weekend against Italy.