IT MUST BE hard for Andy Farrell not to look back and think ‘what if?’ after his Ireland team saved their best for last in this Six Nations.

There will be justifiable satisfaction this morning, as well excitement about the future and some relief, but a hint of frustration too.

Johnny Sexton and co. secured third place in the final table for the second consecutive season, with their convincing 32-18 win over England on Saturday the peak performance so far in the Farrell era.

Eddie Jones’ England were poor last weekend but Ireland made their lives very difficult with a combination of defensive grit, breakdown accuracy on both sides of the ball, a controlled kicking game, and their best attacking performance in a long time.

Farrell could be forgiven for reflecting on the 2021 Six Nations with some regret – what if Peter O’Mahony hadn’t been sent off against Wales on the opening weekend and his team had been able to start with an away win?

“I suppose there are always ifs, buts, and maybes – red cards, yellow cards, decisions, injuries, and all those bits,” said Farrell.

“But we make no excuses, it’s the game that we play. Some go your way, some don’t go your way. The first game, it is always nice to get off to a rolling start and Wales took advantage of that.”

Indeed, Wayne Pivac’s side – under intense pressure coming into this championship – very nearly pulled off a Grand Slam only to have their hearts broken by Brice Dulin and France late on Saturday night in Paris.

Farrell embraces CJ Stander. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

Ireland, meanwhile, had to fight to rescue their Six Nations after the opening-round defeat and, to their credit, they have done as much with three consecutive wins, all of it topped off with that superb performance on Saturday in Dublin.

Farrell’s men have now set a new benchmark for themselves. 

“It’s about starting like that the next time, isn’t it?” said Farrell.

“Sometimes it’s not right to build into a competition like the Six Nations because before you know it, it’s too late. Again, sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t at the start but we’ll take the learnings from this.

“It’s a great reference point, isn’t it, from where we left off.”

For most of us on the outside, Ireland’s performance against England was unexpected. We simply hadn’t seen that level of accuracy, inventiveness, and consistent bite since all the way back at the height of the Joe Schmidt era.

Ireland, to be fair, had been promising us that this was coming. Johnny Sexton was blue in the face from insisting that things were moving in the right direction behind the scenes.

“It’s about transferring what you do day in, day out onto the field under pressure,” said Farrell.

“It wasn’t perfect out there by any means, the start was probably completely different to last week [against Scotland]. We started pretty well last week, the start today wasn’t great, we made a few errors.

Tadhg Beirne celebrates an Ireland turnover. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“What was most pleasing is how calm we were, how patient we were with the ball and how we went from moment to moment and didn’t get distracted. We kept our energy at the high level we needed to win a game against England.”

While Farrell himself has come in for scrutiny in recent months and attack coach Mike Catt has also faced criticism, the Ireland boss says he and his coaching staff never wavered in their belief that they were on the right path.

“We get belief in what we’re doing and what we’re preaching by the reaction from our players and they believe in what we’re doing,” said Farrell.

“They think we’re getting better and they’re constantly talking about that, you know, ‘it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming’.

“So coaches can’t ask for more than that. You know you’re on the right track when you get the feedback from the players.”