IT WASN’T JUST Georgia that was on Andy Farrell’s mind. It was a creaking scrum, a blunt attack, a line-out that wasn’t clicking, a captain that wasn’t playing; an understudy that was always injured. This isn’t a lesson in ancient history, either. This was only 16 months ago.
There and then, as Ireland stuttered to a 13-point win over Georgia, a week after losing to England for the fourth time on the trot, you just couldn’t imagine anything good coming out of the Farrell/Catt regime. Five wins from eight suggested things were going reasonably well but for those looking closely, the opposite was true.
England (twice) and France had outplayed them, while their February 2020 win over Scotland owed as much to Stuart Hogg’s sloppiness in the end-goal area as for any tactical innovations on Farrell’s behalf. Indeed there were many – Shane Horgan being the most vocal – who felt the new regime wasn’t entirely dissimilar to the old one.
Then, as 2021 opened up with defeats to Wales and France, and Farrell’s record stood at five defeats out of 11, it’s easy to forget now that some columnists were calling for his head. This was before he’d beaten England so convincingly at the Aviva; long before New Zealand were outclassed in the same venue; a year before the Triple Crown was added to his resume.
Since that 15-13 loss to France 13 months ago, Ireland have won 12 out of 13, boosting Farrell’s win ratio up to 75 per cent – the best record by any Irish head coach who has held the job on a permanent basis. The situation unquestionably has turned around.
But how? What has been the secret behind the improvement?
CABINET RESHUFFLE
When Farrell first got the gig, there was so much talk from the players about how good the mood was in training that it didn’t take long for fans to get miffed. All this praise for Farrell’s man-management was, by extension, a dig (possibly unintentionally) at Joe Schmidt.
Farrell served Schmidt for three years. Jayne Russell / INPHO
Jayne Russell / INPHO / INPHO
Big mistake, for Schmidt – especially The Late Late Joe – is, and always will be, immensely popular with Irish fans, who remember the good days, those wins over New Zealand; that 2018 grand slam; the Six Nations championships in 2014 and 2015, not to mention a series win in Australia.
On top of all this, the New Zealander had charisma, a willingness to appear consistently free of charge on the chicken and chips circuit, regularly showing up in provincial clubs to spread the rugby Gospel, either for a coaching session or a fundraiser.
So, the underlying suggestion that the mood had turned a bit sour in the Ireland camp during his last year was a narrative few wanted to read – especially when Glasnost was something only the players were enjoying. The fans certainly weren’t, Ireland playing some fairly average stuff right up until the England game in March last year.
By then, Farrell had copped on that his support staff was a bit light. Enter Mick Kearney, an understated, intelligent man, who had successfully worked on Declan Kidney’s and Schmidt’s staff as team manager. His attention to detail and ability to take care of the little in-house jobs makes him an important cog in the Team Ireland wheel. “Players trust Mick,” Farrell said. “That’s important.”
So is the role of mind doctor, or whatever fancy title they give it these days. After Enda McNulty’s departure from this post in 2019, Farrell’s Ireland were evidently struggling in this area until they appointed performance-guru, Gary Keegan, post Georgia.
A year later, after coming from behind to beat the All Blacks, Johnny Sexton was making it clear what kind of impact Keegan was having. “This team has worked a hell of a lot on our mental side of the game,” Sexton said. “That showed in this game, especially when we were trailing.”
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While their mentality was getting better, so was the quality of their set-piece, coinciding with Paul O’Connell’s arrival on the coaching ticket. You only have to think of Keith Earls’ try against England – courtesy of Jack Conan’s athleticism and ball-handling skills at the tail of the line-out – to get a reminder of how smart O’Connell’s rugby brain is.
Ireland players celebrate Earls' try in 2021. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
Yet it wasn’t just the team that was benefitting from having O’Connell, Keegan and Kearney on board. Farrell was too, his load lightened. Both he and Simon Easterby were effectively double-jobbing in that first year. By the time their second Six Nations campaign came around, they were allowed narrow their focus. The benefits soon became obvious.
CASE FOR THE DEFENCE
If the England game in March last year can be marked down as the turning point, then the win over New Zealand in November was the day when any remaining doubts about Farrell’s suitability for the job disappeared forever.
Ireland played magnificently that day, their skill levels and attacking play drawing most of the praise. But something else was happening in November that few were paying much attention to. Against Argentina and Japan, Ireland had scored 113 points. Big numbers; but here is another one. They conceded just 12.
Fast forward to the 2022 Six Nations, a tournament where Ireland scored more tries than any other team. What’s half-forgotten is they also conceded fewer; just four compared to the 10 they coughed up in 2021. It helps, of course, to face 13 Italians rather than 15 for three-quarters of a Test; to face 14 Englishmen for 79 minutes of the following game.
But that wasn’t the sole reason things were better defensively. By bringing O’Connell on board, Easterby and Farrell had more time to dedicate their thoughts to Ireland’s defence, on getting the connections between players right, on organising them to double-mark opposing teams’ most dangerous ball carriers.
England's Courtney Lawes is tackled. Andrew Fosker / INPHO
Andrew Fosker / INPHO / INPHO
It was a personnel thing as much as a tactical one, though. When Ireland were losing 15-13 to France in February 2021, they were doing so with a pack containing Rob Herring, Rhys Ruddock and CJ Stander – good, solid, effective pros. Come November and New Zealand’s visit, there were subtle changes.
Stander had retired; Cian Healy was downgraded to the bench; Ruddock couldn’t even make the bench. Farrell had gone for youth and athleticism, shifting Andrew Porter to loosehead, profiting from Tadhg Furlong and Caelan Doris being fully fit again, from Josh van der Flier improving immeasurably. A more conservative selector would have stuck with Herring, a line-out specialist, a good scrummager, and a player who’d never let Ireland down.
But Farrell liked the look of Ronan Kelleher, not to mention Doris and Jack Conan. The emphasis was on ball-players, guys who could do a bit of everything, who could make their tackles and then get up off the ground and speed across the pitch to hit the next ruck. Against the All Blacks, Ireland’s starting pack didn’t just do this. They also outperformed their New Zealand counterparts in metres carried, in carries and in passes.
Significantly they had fewer missed tackles than the New Zealand pack that day, too, a trend that continued throughout the Six Nations. So not only did Ireland have a pack that could do the nuts and bolts of forward play; but they were skilled operators who could post impressive stats both in attack and defence.
As an example, Ireland’s pack carried for 95 more metres; made 19 more carries; completed 11 more passes, made one more turnover in the New Zealand game compared to the Georgia one. Think about the quality of opposition in each case there. Farrell’s decision to prioritise fit, mobile, skilful forwards was paying off.
ATTACK FINALLY CLICKS
Listen to something often enough and you eventually believe it. For years we were told Ireland were over-reliant on Johnny Sexton; in 2019 and 2020 it was proven correct, every team able to read Ireland’s attacking intentions – Plan A, a box-kick off nine; Plan B, a Sexton wraparound; Plan C, a one-off runner heading into contact.
Then Mike Catt arrived and we were repeatedly told that from here on in, Ireland would play ‘Heads Up’ rugby, in other words, they were to be liberated from a rehearsed script and free to make their own choices in open play. In 2020, that first Farrell year, the change was barely noticeable, Ireland having the look of a team stuck between the conflicting philosophies of the old coach and the new one.
By the time they defeated England in March 2021, things appeared to be changing. By the time they outclassed the All Blacks in November, things definitely had changed.
No longer were Murray and Sexton the instigators of everything. Murray, for a start, was demoted to the bench, Jamison Gibson-Park preferred for his ability to get Ireland playing at a higher tempo.
Gibson-Park has added tempo to Ireland's play. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
Beyond that, there was something else, something blindingly obvious. This all-singing, all-dancing pack, the eight starters and five replacements, who could tackle, clean out rucks as well as fulfil the fundamental requirements of old fashioned forward play, were also proving to be highly skilled ball players.
In the All Blacks win, Sexton completed 31 passes, the same number as the other six starting backs, one fewer than the eight members of the starting pack. In other words, the team had stopped being reliant on just their captain as playmaker. Others – Furlong, Porter, Doris, Bundee Aki, James Lowe – were popping up in the first receiver position.
That remained the case throughout the championship. Against the Scots last week, Sexton made 31 passes, the pack 32. As well as this, they posed a running threat; Dan Sheehan carrying for 31 metres, Conan for 51, Doris for 22, van der Flier for 24.
This, essentially, is what Heads Up rugby consists of. Ireland now has a pack of forwards who keep opposition defences guessing whether they are going to run or pass. They can no longer concentrate solely on Sexton because you have hookers like Sheehan or Kelleher, wingers like Lowe or Hansen, centres like Ringrose or Aki, ready to share that playmaking responsibility. It makes Ireland harder to beat but also easier to watch.
BUT THEN AGAIN ………….
What have they actually won under Farrell? A test against the All Blacks! Well, Joe Schmidt did that twice.
A victory at Twickenham! Schmidt ticked that particular box, too, as did Eddie O’Sullivan in ’04 and ’06, while Kidney won there in 2010.
A Triple Crown! Well, Schmidt won a grand slam plus two other championships; O’Sullivan won three Triple Crowns, Kidney a grand slam.
The England game brought a sober reminder. Yes, Ireland’s pack can pass and run and offload and tackle but can they scrummage? England won six scrum penalties that day.
More worrying was what happened in Paris, Farrell waiting until the 72nd minute before he substituted Porter and Furlong. It makes you question whether Healy still has the legs and whether Finlay Bealham, the replacement tighthead, is as good in the scrum as he is around the park.
Looking at things coldly, you could safely say Ireland are the fourth best team in the world right now, therefore they should, conceivably, finally make it to a World Cup semi-final.
If only life was that simple. To get there they have to navigate a path past world champions, South Africa, and then either France or New Zealand in the quarter-finals. For all the progress they’ve made in the last year, they’re still way shy of where they need to be.
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How Andy Farrell turned things around for Ireland
IT WASN’T JUST Georgia that was on Andy Farrell’s mind. It was a creaking scrum, a blunt attack, a line-out that wasn’t clicking, a captain that wasn’t playing; an understudy that was always injured. This isn’t a lesson in ancient history, either. This was only 16 months ago.
There and then, as Ireland stuttered to a 13-point win over Georgia, a week after losing to England for the fourth time on the trot, you just couldn’t imagine anything good coming out of the Farrell/Catt regime. Five wins from eight suggested things were going reasonably well but for those looking closely, the opposite was true.
England (twice) and France had outplayed them, while their February 2020 win over Scotland owed as much to Stuart Hogg’s sloppiness in the end-goal area as for any tactical innovations on Farrell’s behalf. Indeed there were many – Shane Horgan being the most vocal – who felt the new regime wasn’t entirely dissimilar to the old one.
Then, as 2021 opened up with defeats to Wales and France, and Farrell’s record stood at five defeats out of 11, it’s easy to forget now that some columnists were calling for his head. This was before he’d beaten England so convincingly at the Aviva; long before New Zealand were outclassed in the same venue; a year before the Triple Crown was added to his resume.
Since that 15-13 loss to France 13 months ago, Ireland have won 12 out of 13, boosting Farrell’s win ratio up to 75 per cent – the best record by any Irish head coach who has held the job on a permanent basis. The situation unquestionably has turned around.
But how? What has been the secret behind the improvement?
CABINET RESHUFFLE
When Farrell first got the gig, there was so much talk from the players about how good the mood was in training that it didn’t take long for fans to get miffed. All this praise for Farrell’s man-management was, by extension, a dig (possibly unintentionally) at Joe Schmidt.
Big mistake, for Schmidt – especially The Late Late Joe – is, and always will be, immensely popular with Irish fans, who remember the good days, those wins over New Zealand; that 2018 grand slam; the Six Nations championships in 2014 and 2015, not to mention a series win in Australia.
On top of all this, the New Zealander had charisma, a willingness to appear consistently free of charge on the chicken and chips circuit, regularly showing up in provincial clubs to spread the rugby Gospel, either for a coaching session or a fundraiser.
So, the underlying suggestion that the mood had turned a bit sour in the Ireland camp during his last year was a narrative few wanted to read – especially when Glasnost was something only the players were enjoying. The fans certainly weren’t, Ireland playing some fairly average stuff right up until the England game in March last year.
By then, Farrell had copped on that his support staff was a bit light. Enter Mick Kearney, an understated, intelligent man, who had successfully worked on Declan Kidney’s and Schmidt’s staff as team manager. His attention to detail and ability to take care of the little in-house jobs makes him an important cog in the Team Ireland wheel. “Players trust Mick,” Farrell said. “That’s important.”
So is the role of mind doctor, or whatever fancy title they give it these days. After Enda McNulty’s departure from this post in 2019, Farrell’s Ireland were evidently struggling in this area until they appointed performance-guru, Gary Keegan, post Georgia.
A year later, after coming from behind to beat the All Blacks, Johnny Sexton was making it clear what kind of impact Keegan was having. “This team has worked a hell of a lot on our mental side of the game,” Sexton said. “That showed in this game, especially when we were trailing.”
While their mentality was getting better, so was the quality of their set-piece, coinciding with Paul O’Connell’s arrival on the coaching ticket. You only have to think of Keith Earls’ try against England – courtesy of Jack Conan’s athleticism and ball-handling skills at the tail of the line-out – to get a reminder of how smart O’Connell’s rugby brain is.
Yet it wasn’t just the team that was benefitting from having O’Connell, Keegan and Kearney on board. Farrell was too, his load lightened. Both he and Simon Easterby were effectively double-jobbing in that first year. By the time their second Six Nations campaign came around, they were allowed narrow their focus. The benefits soon became obvious.
CASE FOR THE DEFENCE
If the England game in March last year can be marked down as the turning point, then the win over New Zealand in November was the day when any remaining doubts about Farrell’s suitability for the job disappeared forever.
Ireland played magnificently that day, their skill levels and attacking play drawing most of the praise. But something else was happening in November that few were paying much attention to. Against Argentina and Japan, Ireland had scored 113 points. Big numbers; but here is another one. They conceded just 12.
Fast forward to the 2022 Six Nations, a tournament where Ireland scored more tries than any other team. What’s half-forgotten is they also conceded fewer; just four compared to the 10 they coughed up in 2021. It helps, of course, to face 13 Italians rather than 15 for three-quarters of a Test; to face 14 Englishmen for 79 minutes of the following game.
But that wasn’t the sole reason things were better defensively. By bringing O’Connell on board, Easterby and Farrell had more time to dedicate their thoughts to Ireland’s defence, on getting the connections between players right, on organising them to double-mark opposing teams’ most dangerous ball carriers.
It was a personnel thing as much as a tactical one, though. When Ireland were losing 15-13 to France in February 2021, they were doing so with a pack containing Rob Herring, Rhys Ruddock and CJ Stander – good, solid, effective pros. Come November and New Zealand’s visit, there were subtle changes.
Stander had retired; Cian Healy was downgraded to the bench; Ruddock couldn’t even make the bench. Farrell had gone for youth and athleticism, shifting Andrew Porter to loosehead, profiting from Tadhg Furlong and Caelan Doris being fully fit again, from Josh van der Flier improving immeasurably. A more conservative selector would have stuck with Herring, a line-out specialist, a good scrummager, and a player who’d never let Ireland down.
But Farrell liked the look of Ronan Kelleher, not to mention Doris and Jack Conan. The emphasis was on ball-players, guys who could do a bit of everything, who could make their tackles and then get up off the ground and speed across the pitch to hit the next ruck. Against the All Blacks, Ireland’s starting pack didn’t just do this. They also outperformed their New Zealand counterparts in metres carried, in carries and in passes.
Significantly they had fewer missed tackles than the New Zealand pack that day, too, a trend that continued throughout the Six Nations. So not only did Ireland have a pack that could do the nuts and bolts of forward play; but they were skilled operators who could post impressive stats both in attack and defence.
As an example, Ireland’s pack carried for 95 more metres; made 19 more carries; completed 11 more passes, made one more turnover in the New Zealand game compared to the Georgia one. Think about the quality of opposition in each case there. Farrell’s decision to prioritise fit, mobile, skilful forwards was paying off.
ATTACK FINALLY CLICKS
Listen to something often enough and you eventually believe it. For years we were told Ireland were over-reliant on Johnny Sexton; in 2019 and 2020 it was proven correct, every team able to read Ireland’s attacking intentions – Plan A, a box-kick off nine; Plan B, a Sexton wraparound; Plan C, a one-off runner heading into contact.
Then Mike Catt arrived and we were repeatedly told that from here on in, Ireland would play ‘Heads Up’ rugby, in other words, they were to be liberated from a rehearsed script and free to make their own choices in open play. In 2020, that first Farrell year, the change was barely noticeable, Ireland having the look of a team stuck between the conflicting philosophies of the old coach and the new one.
By the time they defeated England in March 2021, things appeared to be changing. By the time they outclassed the All Blacks in November, things definitely had changed.
No longer were Murray and Sexton the instigators of everything. Murray, for a start, was demoted to the bench, Jamison Gibson-Park preferred for his ability to get Ireland playing at a higher tempo.
Beyond that, there was something else, something blindingly obvious. This all-singing, all-dancing pack, the eight starters and five replacements, who could tackle, clean out rucks as well as fulfil the fundamental requirements of old fashioned forward play, were also proving to be highly skilled ball players.
In the All Blacks win, Sexton completed 31 passes, the same number as the other six starting backs, one fewer than the eight members of the starting pack. In other words, the team had stopped being reliant on just their captain as playmaker. Others – Furlong, Porter, Doris, Bundee Aki, James Lowe – were popping up in the first receiver position.
That remained the case throughout the championship. Against the Scots last week, Sexton made 31 passes, the pack 32. As well as this, they posed a running threat; Dan Sheehan carrying for 31 metres, Conan for 51, Doris for 22, van der Flier for 24.
This, essentially, is what Heads Up rugby consists of. Ireland now has a pack of forwards who keep opposition defences guessing whether they are going to run or pass. They can no longer concentrate solely on Sexton because you have hookers like Sheehan or Kelleher, wingers like Lowe or Hansen, centres like Ringrose or Aki, ready to share that playmaking responsibility. It makes Ireland harder to beat but also easier to watch.
BUT THEN AGAIN ………….
What have they actually won under Farrell? A test against the All Blacks! Well, Joe Schmidt did that twice.
A victory at Twickenham! Schmidt ticked that particular box, too, as did Eddie O’Sullivan in ’04 and ’06, while Kidney won there in 2010.
A Triple Crown! Well, Schmidt won a grand slam plus two other championships; O’Sullivan won three Triple Crowns, Kidney a grand slam.
The England game brought a sober reminder. Yes, Ireland’s pack can pass and run and offload and tackle but can they scrummage? England won six scrum penalties that day.
More worrying was what happened in Paris, Farrell waiting until the 72nd minute before he substituted Porter and Furlong. It makes you question whether Healy still has the legs and whether Finlay Bealham, the replacement tighthead, is as good in the scrum as he is around the park.
Looking at things coldly, you could safely say Ireland are the fourth best team in the world right now, therefore they should, conceivably, finally make it to a World Cup semi-final.
If only life was that simple. To get there they have to navigate a path past world champions, South Africa, and then either France or New Zealand in the quarter-finals. For all the progress they’ve made in the last year, they’re still way shy of where they need to be.
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andy farrell So Farr So Good