IRELAND’S LACK OF impact subs contributed to the side’s poor performance against New Zealand, Bernard Jackman said on Monday’s Rugby Weekly Extra, the podcast for subscribers to The 42.
“It was as bad a performance as Ireland have probably had under Farrell,” Jackman said.
“I know there’s an excuse that we came in cold, but November is usually the best opportunity to beat the southern hemisphere teams.
“I looked at the bench and saw Iain Henderson, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Cian Healy. My mindset was: ‘Well, we better be ahead’, because we don’t have the game changers that other teams have.
“And that’s not Farrell’s fault, it’s just where we are. But if we’re going to get back to No 1 in the world and be a force at the next World Cup, we need to find athletes who are at the peak of their powers or will be at the peak of their powers over the next few years.
You can’t keep relying on Healy, O’Mahony, Murray or Henderson. They’ve been amazing but the All Blacks lost Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick and Richie Mo’unga after the World Cup and still look exciting now.”
Jackman added: “Physically, I felt like New Zealand bullied us. You just felt like Ireland were soaking tackles. From the Irish point of view, they’ll say ‘Aw, fine margins’ and they will dispute some of the penalty calls.
“But you could see Farrell’s frustrations. What concerns me was that he was concerned in the week beforehand, a bit [frustrated] listening to what some of the press were saying. Did he sense that they were undercooked or weren’t ready?
“What we saw was a very untypical Irish performance and there’s only so much juice you can get out of a lemon and maybe we’ve got the max we can out of this group.
“But maybe we haven’t. I would trust Farrell’s ability to get us back to a certain level on Friday night, but when they do play poorly like that you have to start wondering what is the next step in terms of selection and player development.”
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I think some Irish supporters and media people should take a reality check regarding Irish rugby. Farrell has done a superb job so far with limited enough talent in certain areas. The sad truth is that the provinces have not been producing any International standard props for years now. You could also make the same point about half backs and wingers with one or two exceptions.
@Tom Reilly: Bang on on Props. Furlong and Porter but then that’s it. Ryan and Jager were brought back from super rugby for this reason but both have been injured so much. LHP is a disaster, O’Toole was going to switch over which makes sense for Ireland but not for Ulster
You’d imagine Ireland are the easiest team to analyse as we use the same players all the time, which leads to 23 players having loads of experience, and the 24th player onwards only having caps against Fiji / Somoa each November, and potentially Italy in the 6 Nations.
Appreciate it’s probably in Farrell and his staffs contracts that they need to be winning games all the time, which is fair enough, but this needs to be reviewed to get the average age of the squad down / blood so many potential new players. We boast we go X games unbeaten, and get to world number 1 every few years only to get knocked out in a QC quarter final, and not emptying the bench either may I add because the players are inexperienced
Only so many tricks you can teach the same dog
New law around kick-chase and rain (not forecast tbf) meant Ireland should have kicked way more, but that’s now not our game. Aki, Healy, Henderson, POM and Murray need to be swapped out for the rest of these tests and the 6 nations – there are ready replacements that need experience waiting, apart from LHP – which is a massive concern.
@Andrew Slazenger: not so sure about Aki maybe the rest of them yes. He still has lots of playing and is still very strong. A wet ball is a difficult thing to grab hold of.
@Con Cussed: we have 2 massively talented kids coming through at 12, it’s time to hand over to osbourne, leave aki, henshaw and mccloskey out and play them.
@Con Cussed: I’m not saying we discard Aki but he’ll be 37 at the next WC, so we need to build up experience in others, Osborne but also Forde
@chris mcdonnell: Yes for the remainder of the Autumn games. If they perform well they can be seriously considered for 6N games. Not sure they would have been ready for a team of the AB’s quality. Biggest is prop for now. Porter, Furlong and Bealham up to international standard but after that? No standout 7 challenging JVDF either which tends to get overlooked in all the front row discussion.
@TL55: Very good callout re JVDF. He’s obviously still performing at an exceptional level but he’s 31 now and will likely slow down a bit soon. Timoney and McCann up north are live options slightly longer term. I can’t remember who has played the more rugby at 7. They obviously like Kendellen a lot too, as do I. Has to get himself past Hodnett first obviously. He is someone for whatever reason hasn’t seem to have come into the reckoning. Maybe he’s a tad too small I’m not sure. Scott Penny is a player I love but he seems to be a bit in the wilderness right now unfortunately.
@TL55: osbourne was easily good enough in SA. We have a number of 7s who are capable, timoney, connors, hodnet ,penny pendergast, so far none have really stepped to challenge josh but could step in.
@Con Cussed: Aki was poor enough v NZ… he needs to be shooting the lights out to stay in the team or offering something in a leadership capacity. I know it is only one game, but it was a serious backward step. Before the game I was backing Andy’s decision to stick with the experienced players, but they didn’t back that faith up with a worthy performance! The knock on effect was a nervy performance from both our 10s and little or no attacking nuance.
Don’t have any hard evidence , but judging by the character of the man himself and the culture he has worked to foster within the group, I’d say they are a genuinely chastened bunch who completely understand and accept that they fell badly short of the standards they have set for themselves and bought into. I believe there is a very strong desire both individually and collectively to right those shortcomings and they will; not just next Friday but for the remaining fixtures.
@Michael Murray: Sure and your hard evidence would be the performances over a decent number of years now. However, there’s only so many times you can go to the well, especially when you’re up against blokes who are increasingly younger, fitter and bigger than you.
No doubt contracts and spreadsheets and politics are all cogs in the wheel.
But if the name of the game is to win a QF or better in 2027 we need a full squad capable of bettering the rest of the top 6 at least . Players need to be blooded in the white heat of proper test matches. For sure there will be disappointments for some and losses for the team in so doing but all as nothing if we take another early boat home from another RWC.
If not now then when?
@Kiersn OConnor: …see where wholesale blooding is getting Gatland….however and to to be fair, you can say the same for Joe Schmidt. Mind you in Joe’s case, it has cost 3 coaches their livelihood before he took the reins….so back to Gatland mebbe?
@Michael Murray: Hello Michael, I didn’t say bloodletting?? Some existing players are simply not going to be around in 2027 so we surely need to blood younger talent. Gatland has even fewer resources so it’s even tougher for him but he has no choice. What choice do we have to get a 30+ man squad ready in time for 2027?
@Kiersn OConnor: there’s a difficult balance to be struck. On the one hand, I agree with you that too many of the current squad won’t be around for the next WC. On the other hand, the next generation of props and halfbacks isn’t exactly banging down the door. By this stage, players like Casey or Doak should have elbowed Murray aside, but they haven’t.
The problem faced by any Irish coach is that the playing pool is small. Add to that the dependency of professional rugby in Ireland on the success of the national team, and you have a recipe for a conservative approach.
Having said that, Farrell hasn’t been unwilling to shake up the hierarchy at provincial level – look at his early championing of JGP
@Kiersn OConnor: ….sorry Kieran but where did you get blood letting from, it’s not in my post?
@Michael Murray: it’s just semantics, reread your own post.
@lesidees: the reason Murray is still selected is nothing to do with form, it’s because he’s on a central contract whilst Casey, doak, etc aren’t. contract contracts get selected.
It’s all very difficult to find what the best scenario for blooding more of our home grown talent. The WC holders SA and the team to beat leave their guys travel the world and explore and when International games come up they are whipped back like their’s a bungee rope attached. Fully loaded with knowledge of the country and their Rugby styles…. (Snyman will know the Irish team so well)…I think Ireland should look at allowing players to have foreign contracts and still be part of the International seen if the coach wishes. (Sexton???) This would force clubs to play more home grown and push the talent along and grow strong roots from within the Provinces. Just a thought?
Hyperbole to suggest its the worst performance under Farrell. Anybody remember the early Georgia or Japan games?
What we saw v NZ was that when Ireland dip to 95% they lose to top tier teams and struggle to beat tier 2 nations. Other similar performance include our loss to England in the 6N, our win over Scotland in 2024, our QF defeat v NZ and our warm up win over Samoa in 2023
Big Jim on the Rugby Pod was quite right to call out the pre-match stuff, save for the Haka. No wonder the atmosphere was a bit flat. Surprised nobody pulled a hammy in the first few minutes given how long the players had been stood around. May as well sack off Ireland’s Call in Dublin – Andy doesn’t pick (m)any Ulster plays anyway. Contrast the anthems, the Last Post etc at Twickenham.
@Justin Robinson: Agree re pre match. In regards all the comments media have made re atmosphere on Friday, bar the haka, the scuffle, try and 50/22, what else was there to cheer? Seemed like every phase we conceded a penalty or made a needless error. Hard to generate any kind of atmosphere when the performance was what it was. Definitely a valid critique of matches gone by (Munster Leinster, Leinster Northampton etc) but thought the atmosphere matched the performance tbh
@Conor: @Conor: real supporters try to lift their team if things get flat. It is not the other way around. You sound like the wan&ers I observed at the game drinking their beers every 15 minutes waiting to be entertained provided it aligned with their schedule. The Aviva atmosphere is down to guys like you. Please stay away in future.
@JJB: It’s more nuanced than that – one feeds the other. Rugby frequently needs a big hit or a scuffle to get things going. Let’s not pretend the atmosphere at a rugby game is anywhere near football. Clermont, during their purple patch, was the nearest I’ve seen.
@JJB: 100% The support is number 16…. If the atmosphere from the home support is flat then vibe spreads out onto the home team…. How many times has that been proven in reverse when the home supporters lift their team to rafters….
Jesus wept, let it go.