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Ireland were left dejected last weekend against France. Dan Sheridan/INPHO

Farrell needs Ireland's attack to get firing for 'dangerous' Italy trip

After a blunt performance against France, the Mike Catt-coached Ireland attack needs to improve.

THE LAST TIME Ireland travelled to Rome for a Six Nations game was an unhappy occasion in 2019.

You might remember Johnny Sexton exiting in major frustration, kicking out at a towel after being replaced by Jack Carty, his annoyance in that moment seemingly focused on a dropped ball by Jacob Stockdale from Sexton’s pass moments before.

It wasn’t a perfect day for Conor Murray either, with the scrum-half getting stripped of the ball by opposite number Tito Tebaldi in the lead-up to an Italian try.

Murray did later score a try himself and Ireland ended up winning 26-16 in Rome but it sure wasn’t all plain sailing. It’s not the most comforting memory for the Irish squad as they now prepare for another visit to Stadio Olimpico in the Six Nations on Saturday 27 February.

Andy Farrell was an assistant coach to Joe Schmidt back in 2019 but he’s the boss now and his side urgently need a strong win and a convincing performance to get the show back on the road after two defeats in the opening two rounds of the Six Nations.

The Italians have also lost two from two, albeit in facing the two highest-ranked teams in the competition in France and England and displaying some bright sparks in attack even as they have conceded 91 points.

“It is dangerous,” said Farrell of Ireland’s trip to Rome, for which he is expected to pick a team close to full-strength.  “We’ve been analysing for the last couple of weeks and if you just looked at the scorelines you’d say that everything should be rosy, but we know the facts.

“We’ve watched the Italian side, they’re playing some good rugby as they proved last week at Twickenham. They caused all sorts of trouble.

jonathan-sexton-after-the-game Ireland had a frustrating day in Rome in 2019. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“If you don’t respect the game in general, you can come unstuck. A couple of times, teams have tried to approach the game a little differently and have really come unstuck against Italy and that’s in the recent past as well.”

That said, Ireland are still 20-point favourites and really should have the ability to put this Italy team away. Another stuttering performance would raise serious concerns about where this Irish side is heading under Farrell, so he needs everything firing for round three.

The Mike Catt-coached attack is of primary concern for Ireland after a poor outing in that department against the French.

On the back of the detail-heavy Schmidt era, Farrell and Catt have been keen for Ireland’s players to have greater autonomy on the pitch but so far, the approach hasn’t yielded consistently positive results. Against France, Ireland missed several opportunities to attack space out wide.

“The biggest thing for me is our game understanding and at the same time understanding where the space is,” said Farrell. “I ain’t trying to make this complicated at all because it isn’t complicated, it’s unbelievably simple.

“The run, kick or pass element as far as our game understanding or decision-making is concerned is whether you can put pace on to the ball.

“Sometimes it is on in front of you, sometimes it is on to the side of you. Sometimes there is no option whatsoever other than to run with brute force and do your best.

“To do all of that, you’ve got to be set and ready to go as a team nice and early in the piece because you don’t get time in international football to do anything different if you’re not set nice and early.

andy-farrell Farrell needs a strong performance from his team in Italy. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“Therefore, those spaces that you’d normally set up at Pro14 level, etc., tend to be there 30 seconds later and [at Test level] they’re not anymore.

“We are creating opportunities through our game understanding. Are we seeing all of those opportunities that we’re creating or are we executing on those opportunities? No, not at this moment in time. That’s obviously the work-on and where we need to get to.”

While Farrell himself hasn’t used the phrase ‘heads-up rugby’ to define his and Catt’s hopes for Ireland’s attack, several of his Ireland players have.

“Some of the players mentioned that at the start, heads-up rugby,” said Farrell. “What is that? It’s not complicated. If you get a ball that’s on the halfway line and you’ve got 40 metres of space on the right-hand side, are you going to run, pass or kick?

“So, those decisions have always been in the game. If you’re a forward, you’re taking the ball forward and there’s a 10-metre space on either side of you, are you gonna tuck or are you gonna pass the ball? That is decision making.

“If there’s no decision to be made, are you, as a support player, going to run a tight line for an offload or you going to run a latch and clean the ruck out? These are all decision-making processes.

“Making good decisions at the breakdown – are we sending too many players into the breakdown? It’s all part of the decision-making process.

“We talked about it a bit at the start and I think it’s got lost in translation really that we’re trying to complicate things. We’re not at all. The game is still as simple as it always has been. You’ve got to play into space, whether it’s front of you or to the side of you.”

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    Mute Pete Slattery ✏️
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    Feb 19th 2021, 9:23 AM

    Here’s an idea. Fire Mike Catt. I still don’t know why he was hired. He was the backs coach for an England that were always nearly there’s and then got dumped out of their own World Cup in the pool stages. Then was attack coach for Italy. That is not a career path that inspired any confidence. And we’ve seen Ireland regress while he’s been in the setup. At least Andy Farrell has a decent CV with The Lions and Ireland under Joe Schmidt. But really, why is Catt in the setup?

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    Mute Mike Faherty
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    Feb 19th 2021, 11:01 AM

    @Pete Slattery ✏️: Firing Catt would be a sacrificial lamb and only papering over the cracks. The entire management team needs to go (with the exception of O’Connell) as the systemic problem are so inset an entire reboot is required. I have said on this forum before that someone like Scottie Robertson would be ripe for picking from super rugby and his with previous relationship with ROG would be a very attractive and viable coaching ticket.

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    Mute Rudiger McMonihan
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    Feb 19th 2021, 4:18 PM

    @Mike Faherty: scot robertson is set to be the next AllBlacks coach. He isnt going to leave to coach ireland. The irish team is really solid on everything other than attack. It is well worth trying a new attack coach than going through the effort of replacing everyone.

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    Mute Mike Faherty
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    Feb 19th 2021, 10:00 PM

    @Rudiger McMonihan: He was snubbed in favour of Ian Foster in 2019. Foster only got a 2 year contract on the assumption that Gats would get job post Lions. With Super rugby even suffering more than the NH the IRFU could test his resolve, ala Dingo Deans

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    Mute Batster
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    Feb 19th 2021, 8:34 AM

    So the coach is blaming his players now for not implementing his non existent game plan.
    The scrum and line out has improved since Paul O’Connell has arrived which is great to see but that’s the only positive.
    Otherwise it’s depressing to see a team of players kicking the ball away at every opportunity particularly players like Lowe who runs everything playing for Leinster.
    Some of the selections have been baffling too, JGP and Burns are good club players but a long way from international standard. What do Carthy and Cooney have to do to get picked?
    Also leaving Craig Casey on the bench for 80 minutes is frankly insulting to the young lad.
    I expect him to pick the usual players for next week and Ireland to scrape a win Italy.

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    Mute Ricky Wright
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    Feb 19th 2021, 11:25 AM

    @Batster: I absolutely hate seeing a player sitting on the bench for 80 mins in a game we’re chasing from early on. It is appalling management. If you’re not going to trust a player to come off the bench in a losing situation, then don’t have him in the squad in the first place. I’m nowhere near calling for Farrell’s head yet but that dreadful management.

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Feb 19th 2021, 9:40 AM

    Since 1995 Italy have won 4 from 32, the last time was 2013 and before that was 1997. Obviously you have respect for teams but if you’re afraid of Italy you are in trouble with everyone else as we are proving thus far. Come on IRFU lets get it done instead of the inevitable long ‘contractually obliged’ goodbye.

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    Mute Michael Murray
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    Feb 19th 2021, 6:55 AM

    Well one simple starting point that would help -if Johnny is starting- is he either kicks or passes but run/pass, run/loop/receive/pass, please no! ….its like a kink in your garden hose you only get a trickle.

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    Mute Con Cussed
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    Feb 19th 2021, 7:41 AM

    @Michael Murray: Yeah, it’s old hat, including his dummies of the ball.

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    Mute Con Cussed
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    Feb 19th 2021, 7:38 AM

    When we played France it looked like there were 3-4 players ready to pounce on the Irish player with the ball. However, when the Irish player hit the ground 2 retreated to form a defence and the Irish piled on top of the those remaining. And the game slooowed down… What logic?

    Conversely, the French were continuously offloading (when falling, tackled or hitting the ground) to players running onto the ball which made it difficult for the Irish to defend the fast ball. Entertaining attacking stuff.

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    Mute yoloboyz
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    Feb 19th 2021, 3:26 PM

    Anyone else get the feeling that farrell reads too much into the media ??? A lot of his reasoning seems based around selection not game plan. I didn’t like the style we played with schmidt but at least it was something and for a long time very effective. When I see this irish team I don’t know what the plan is (other than kicking the ball 80/90 percent of the time). We worked our asses off in two games putting in huge physical effort. There is a lot of passion but zero creativity… that’s what I expect from a Georgia at this level not from us ! The provinces play much better rugby (especially connacht!!!) Than the national team, this setup bar o connell has brought nothing new. Time to move on

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