ANDY FARRELL HAS been here before. One-nil down and staring at humiliation, knowing history is an unkind judge. Five years ago he was with the Lions, now it is Ireland, and even if the profile of this series is considerably lower than that one, the post-match inquest remains the same.
Monday morning here in Auckland doubled up as interrogation time and planning meeting, where pictures were drawn to illustrate how a 23-point defeat can be turned into a second-Test victory. It is a policy that worked for Farrell, Warren Gatland and the Lions in 2017 and one that is being mulled over now in 2022.
“Yesterday was thinking day,” explained Tadhg Furlong.
They had plenty to ponder, their heaviest defeat since Farrell replaced Joe Schmidt as Ireland coach, the fluffed lines in attack, their problems at the set-piece.
Once, when he was an assistant to Schmidt, Farrell spoke to the players after they had suffered a loss to Australia. That too was the first of a three-game series and even if a distinction has to be made – Australia are not the All Blacks while the 2018 version of Ireland is better than this year’s model – the tone stays the same.
“Now we’ll see what the good, old-fashioned Irish ticker’s about,” said Farrell in between the first and second weeks of the 2018 Australian tour. A year earlier he was similarly influential with the Lions. “I don’t think anyone is better than Andy at getting the tone right in a dressing room,” said Gatland.
It’s just as well because this tour has reached its tipping point. Lose and the series will be gone. Win – something Ireland have never done against the All Blacks in New Zealand – well, you could argue the entire trip has been justified.
But can they win? Across the last two days, we spoke to Ireland’s assistant coaches, Paul O’Connell and Mike Catt, as well as front-row players, Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong, about what they need to do. “We have a no-excuse mentality,” said Furlong.
It’s just as well. If they wanted they could put together a longer list than Schlinder’s: it’s the end of season; they couldn’t buy a break off the ref; they’ve been hit by injuries, Covid, flight delays and concussions; these All Blacks are on a mission.
Forget all that, though. If you lose by 23 points, you get what you deserve. The question now is what – if anything – can Ireland do to stay in this series?
THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE
Back-to-back defeats equates to a crisis in New Zealand. So, when the curtain was pulled on 2021, a long period of introspection followed. They’d got it wrong in Dublin and Paris, they realised. Teams were reading their running lines, slowing their recycle ball, identifying the ball carriers to double mark and the moments to attack their ruck.
To cut to the chase, the mystique had gone; New Zealand’s traditional power game was no longer there; All Blacks had become all backs.
Things had to change and by last Saturday it was clear they had. In their attacking pods, New Zealand stretched Ireland’s defence by regularly hitting the outside player in their three-man pod; issues which Ireland failed to cope with. By the final whistle, they’d conceded six tries, two more than Ireland coughed up in the entire Six Nations.
So what can they do to combat that this weekend? “See, they’re not world beaters or anything like,” said Porter, the Irish loosehead.
He feels the issues are closer to home, believing Ireland need to hold onto the ball with jealous intent; to be more disciplined off the ball, calmer with it.
“It really is just about us and how we can fix that,” said Porter.
O’Connell agrees. Reflecting on New Zealand’s six tries, one (Jordie Barrett’s) came shortly after Ireland had an attacking scrum in the All Blacks’ 22; another (Sevu Reece’s) when Ireland had possession in that same part of the pitch before Garry Ringrose had a pass intercepted; a third (Quinn Tupaea’s) when Ireland got turned over trying to exit. And that’s just the first-half.
“Some of the access we gave them into the game can be tidied up,” said O’Connell, the former Ireland captain, now their forwards coach. “But you have to accept that they are going to score tries at times.
“You just have to try to minimise those opportunities through your defence and not turn over the ball or give away cheap penalties.”
Come Dunedin, the venue for the second test, they know what has to be done.
“In their pod of three forwards, they were hitting the outside forward quite a lot,” says O’Connell. “One time that third guy just happened to be Ardie Savea, who is a pretty good player and was able to create a little bit of magic on the end of it.
“They went hard at our ruck as well at times, and it’s such a big part of the game now. I think we had close to 130 rucks last Saturday; they had 90-odd rucks. It plays such a big role in the game but we got a lot of them right.”
They need to up their percentage even further.
BE ACCURATE
Mike Catt knows all about turning things around. As a player he was there when Jonah Lomu ran over Tony Underwood en route to four tries and a place in the 1995 World Cup final. It finished 45-29 to New Zealand that day in Cape Town; 45-29 is not too dissimilar to 42-19.
England, eventually, bounced back. But it took time; eight years to be precise. Ireland have seven days.
“We created enough opportunities last Saturday,” said Catt. “The theme really for this week has been how accurate we need to be to take our chances. We were just not accurate enough last Saturday in terms of our kick, breakdown, passing. They all need to be spot on and we have got to go to another level for it to work for us.”
Porter concurs: “Their tries, their successes came off our inaccuracy, with the intercepts and literally the bounce of the ball (Savea’s first try) in some cases, and we didn’t convert our opportunities when we were in their 22 in the second half.”
This is Furlong’s take: “It is not easy, it is test match rugby and you can’t always get it your own way, it is just about putting your best foot forward, trying to execute. You see the All Blacks when they got a few chances, first phase, second phase, gone! They had seven points. It is a massive part of the game being clinical with each opportunity you get. It is hard to create opportunities and when you get them, you have to take them.”
DECISION MAKING
Jamison Gibson-Park’s game centres round his unpredictability. He is a run threat; a sharp passer; a fine boxkicker. It’s one thing keeping the opposition guessing; another leaving your team-mates scratching their heads.
The Ireland scrum-half got a couple of things wrong last Saturday, opting – just after New Zealand’s second try – to take a tap-and-go penalty when really he needed to press the button marked calm. The score was 12-5 New Zealand when Gibson-Park took his quick tap. The All Blacks forced a turnover; they quickly got possession inside the Irish half, won a subsequent turnover and four minutes after Gibson-Park’s tap, it was 19-5.
“A lot of international rugby is all about decision-making,” said Catt, who – it has to be stressed – was talking about the subject in general terms rather than specifically about his scrum-half.
“Sometimes the emotion, or the way we play, is a thing. So the player gets ahead of himself a little bit and then will do things that’s probably not right for the team at a certain time in the game.
“It’s those little things we need to get right. So, ‘Stop, what are we doing? This is what we need. This is what’s gone on over the last five minutes. This is what the team needs’.
“Rather than ‘This is what we’re doing and we go and go’. You need to have that calmness and maturity inside to go ‘Right, where are we at in the game? Let’s do this right, let’s do this right’.”
This is O’Connell: “There won’t be a lot of habits that need to be changed but there are a few things that we need to be a little bit smarter on. We had 126 rucks; the vast majority were really good but unfortunately we got really badly hurt off a few of the turnovers; one in particular off the five-man lineout where Tupaea scored.
“That shines a light on your bad moments but it’s fixable and if we can address that, we have a chance on Saturday.”
SET PIECE
It started in Paris, got worse in London and is an issue now. Ireland are coming under pressure in the scrum. To make matters worse, their lineout was periodically shaky at times last Saturday, too – as the All Blacks deliberately selected a lock, Scott Barrett, at blindside to increase the pressure on Ireland’s young hooker, Dan Sheehan.
This is O’Connell: “It was poor on Saturday night, there is no doubt about it. From a scrum point of view, some of the interpretation is frustrating but that is something we need to address and figure out and then lineout wise, we had 17 lineouts but lost four. We just got our drill wrong a little bit.”
Here’s Porter, the Ireland loosehead prop: “Sure look, every ref has their own interpretation of the scrum.
“We just have to be better on Saturday. We know what they’re trying to do now after this Test and we’ll be able to analyse that and look at ourselves and go from there.”
Now read Furlong’s thoughts: “As a group we are putting it on ourselves and taking care of what we can. The set piece is so big in the modern game and we have all spoken about what we want out of it. It is about putting time in. It is all on the line this week.”
Here is Porter again: “When you have those 50-50 calls, he’s going to favour whatever team he thinks is dominant, so you need to be going forward, that’s the main thing. We didn’t get that last Saturday.
“You try to be squeaky clean in the scrum and things just don’t go your way on the day sometimes. We’ll look at ourselves to pull it back and not create those 50-50 calls for the ref and paint positive pictures in the game.”
Asked if he was worried that refs were going to make their minds up on the Ireland scrum and identify it as weak, Porter delivered an answer that was emphatic rather than elaborate.
“No,” he said.
Saturday is his – and Ireland’s – shot at redemption.