GIVEN IRELAND’S HIGHLY impressive form in storming to three bonus-point wins across their opening three Six Nations fixtures, it’s been easy to overlook the changes and challenges which Andy Farrell’s squad have absorbed with such ease along the way.
While Ireland haven’t embarked on a major overhaul akin to what Warren Gatland is implementing in Wales or tackled a system change on the scale of England’s new defence plan with England, the complexion of Andy Farrell’s team has evolved from the side which embarked on such an impressive run of form leading into last year’s World Cup.
Jack Crowley has comfortably stepped into Johnny Sexton’s boots at out-half and while each of the 24-year-old’s performances have been dissected in great detail by supporters and media, it’s still worth remembering how smoothly that transition has happened – particularly when you consider the uncertainty some of the other Six Nations teams have encountered at 10.
Mack Hansen was another significant loss for the tournament as the Connacht player had been a mainstay of Farrell’s team over the last two years, but in stepped Calvin Nash, who had been capped just once before Ireland’s tournament kicked-off in Marseille last month.
Across the wins against France, Italy and Wales, Nash has slotted seamlessly into Ireland’s slick attacking system.
The 6/2 bench split has been another new feature for Ireland in this championship, making the desired impact when called upon against France and Wales, while in the Ireland pack, Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne have quickly formed a formidable second row partnership.
McCarthy’s efforts at the World Cup and strong form with Leinster made him an almost unignorable option in the second row, yet it was still a big call for Farrell to start the 22-year-old against France last month ahead of the almost ever-present James Ryan.
The young Leinster lock stole the show in Marseille and backed that performance up with a huge defensive display against Italy, before a more mixed outing in the win against Wales. On the whole, McCarthy has brought an aggressive edge upon his promotion to the starting team while the experienced Beirne plays some career-best rugby alongside the 22-year-old.
The highly-competitive second row is a real area of strength for Ireland, with yesterday’s news that Ryan will miss the rest of the tournament soothed by Iain Henderson’s return to the matchday 23 for tomorrow’s meeting with England.
Farrell has strong options at lock but for now, the McCarthy-Beirne partnership looks hard to break up.
“They are very different, aren’t they?” said Farrell, speaking to the media in Dublin yesterday.
“I suppose that’s the balance of a good second-row partnership. Tadhg is doing a great job of calling the lineout, he’s nice and composed as far as that is concerned.
It adds different skills to the dynamics of our team obviously in comparison to Joe, who is mastering the art of tighthead lock and the dark arts of causing as much havoc as he possibly can.
“He is learning that pretty quickly at the minute. I’m sure there are things he would love to get better at from the Welsh game, and he gets another chance to prove that.”
Andy Farrell’s men were slow out the traps when Wales came to Dublin in round three as Warren Gatland’s side initially did well to frustrate Ireland’s all-action attack. Dan Sheehan eventually crossed for the opening try after 20 minutes before the home side ultimately ran in four tries.
Given England’s struggles in attack across the championship, Steve Borthwick’s side will look for a similarly rigid defensive display this weekend but Farrell doesn’t want to see his team deviate from their ambitious attacking gameplan should their hosts manage to shackle them in the early stages at Twickenham.
“When people say you’ve got to be more direct and you’ve got to hit the front door more and let’s do that for the first 20 minutes and let’s be direct and let’s see if we can win collisions that way – well then you’re taking away everyone’s decision making within that type of game,” Farrell said.
It’s just making the right decisions at the right time and being able to be calm enough to see that and feel that and do that.
“Directness isn’t just about punching holes because if we do that into a white wall, we’ll be going backwards. It’s about motion and people being in motion and numbers at the line and picking the right options on the back of that that’s going to get us going forward.”
England limped past Italy and Wales in their first two outings before losing at home to Scotland, and while Ireland have been far more impressive across their three bonus-point wins, the sense within the camp is that there is still more to come from this group.
Ireland feel they could have been more clinical in the wins against France, Italy and Wales while they were also disappointed with some of their game management and set-piece work against Warren Gatland’s side last time out.
Yesterday, Farrell was asked where he sees the biggest room for improvement ahead of a round four tie which could see Ireland wrap up back-to-back Six Nations titles.
“An 80-minute performance and being relentless in how we’re going to go after the best version of ourselves.
“I don’t know whether we can achieve that or not. We’re striving to do that. As always, the opposition have a big enough say in that so maybe I’m talking out of turn really. But that’s what we’re always striving for.”
As ever, the Ireland squad are anticipating strong numbers of green jerseys in Twickenham, with Farrell explaining that getting the Irish crowd engaged in the contest has been a big focus throughout the week.
“It’s something that we will talk about and continue to talk about for the rest of the week and build through that, because we always know that there’s excitement for Irish fans to go to Twickenham. Then you add the fact that plenty are there [in England] anyway and they’ll always find a way.
“I always remember being astonished when Munster were playing in Harlequins’ ground. I actually went to the game, Harlequins versus Munster in a European game [2013], and three-quarters of the ground were full of red shirts and I remember the fall-out of people being disgusted that Harlequins’ fans had sold their tickets on for a pretty penny.
“But it just goes to show the depths to which Irish fans will do anything to support their team.”
