SPORT MOVES QUICKLY so as Ireland head coach Andy Farrell sat down to reflect on Ireland’s Six Nations success on Saturday, thoughts already began to turn to the massive challenges that await this year.
With back-to-back Six Nations titles in the bag, Ireland can now look forward to a summer tour to South Africa before a stacked November schedule sees Farrell’s men take on New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia in Dublin.
That November run of games will seriously test Ireland’s remarkable home record, which now stands at 19 straight wins, but first the squad will have to negotiate two huge games against the reigning world champions.
Ireland take on South Africa in Pretoria and Durban on 6 and 13 July. On the back of a Six Nations where Ireland struggled to reproduce the heights of their hugely impressive opening weekend win in France – those back-to-back games in the Rainbow Nation will offer a clearer indication of just where this group stand.
Ireland last toured South Africa in 2016, recording a first win over the Springboks on South African soil in the first Test before losing the series 2-1. Since then, Rassie Erasmus has taken the reins and totally transformed South African rugby, leading the Springboks to back-to-back World Cups.
It’s probably the most challenging summer tour Ireland could have asked for this year.
“Yeah, it doesn’t get any more difficult, does it, or any more exciting than that,” said Farrell.
“All you want is an opportunity to put yourself out there against the best and South Africa are 100% the best, so being able to go out there and test ourselves over there – we’ve managed to win one game over there before – to be able to play two games and test ourselves will be great for our development going forward.”
As evident throughout the Six Nations, Ireland still rely heavily on their lineout and their setpiece will be a key focus for the summer.
This Six Nations also saw Farrell select a 6/2 bench for the first time [v France, Wales and England], and it is highly possible he would have opted for it again against Scotland had Ciarán Frawley been fit to take his place on the bench. It’s surely on the cards to be rolled out again this summer against a South Africa side who have gone better with 7/1 splits over the last 12 months.
Rassie Erasmus has already spoken about wanting to ‘rectify’ South Africa’s recent record against Ireland, and the Springboks are a particularly dangerous animal when playing with a cause.
Ireland have won their last three games against South Africa, with the Springboks’ most recent success in the fixture a 2016 win in Port Elizabeth.
Erasmus held a typically fascinating press conference last week as the Boks unveiled their new attack coach, Tony Brown, and defence coach, former Munster and Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery.
With Jacques Nienaber now working at Leinster Erasmus has stepped back into the head coach role and while he has outlined a desire to initiate a gradual changing of the guard – with many of the squad who captured back-to-back World Cup titles the wrong side of 30 – it sounds as though the former Munster boss will initially still lean heavily on the experienced group who delivered success in France.
Erasmus also spoke about the need for his team to evolve their gameplan, and it will be fascinating to see what plans the always-innovative South African has in store for Ireland.
“As we said before last year’s tournament [World Cup], there was no way that we would be successful if we kept doing things in the same way,” Erasmus said.
“We need to evolve our game once more, as teams will definitely have looked at how we play, and how they think they can stop us.”
Of course, Farrell has freshened up his own team over the course of the Six Nations, with 24-year-old Jack Crowley and 22-year-old Joe McCarthy both starting all five games.
Both players had highly encouraging campaigns and Farrell will surely look to build greater squad depth over the next year.
Ireland had some tricky injury issues to deal with over the last two months but largely coped well. Calvin Nash did an excellent job replacing Mack Hansen on the wing, Ciarán Frawley looked sharp at fullback when Hugo Keenan missed the Wales game and Jordan Larmour had a solid outing at fullback when drafted in on late notice against Scotland.
Still, there is a settled feel to this Ireland team and like any coach, Farrell would surely like greater competition in some areas.
“To be consistently at your best is probably impossible but that is what we’re going after, like I keep on saying,” Farrell said.
“But when class players drop out of the squad, it’s always going to take time to build back up and if you can do that winning, or learning from the experiences like at Twickenham or whatever, then that’s all well and good.
“But the reality is that there’s plenty more in us and there has to be for what’s coming for the rest of the year.”
