He’s a resilient, emotionally intelligent man Andy Farrell, and in the bowels of a darkening Twickenham on Saturday evening he was doing his best to remind his players and anyone listening that Ireland have a chance to win back-to-back Six Nations titles against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday. It shouldn’t have been such a hard sell, but it was.
History had beckoned in the shape of historic back-to-back Grand Slams, and even though it would have constituted grand larceny with less than two minutes remaining at Twickenham on Saturday Ireland had the retention of the title and a shot at another Grand Slam in their grasp.
Regrets they’ll have plenty, not least their endgame management which culminated in a match-winning Marcus Smith drop goal, but in the immediate aftermath of this epic 23-22 loss to England, even the chance to win the title on home soil felt, well, almost a little anti-climactic.
“Anti-climax?” retorted Farrell. “How many times have we won the Six Nations?” The answer is 15, which is one more than Scotland and less than France (18), Wales (28) and England (29), so for sure it’s not to be sniffed at. “Everyone would love to be in our position. We’ve got to make sure we are loving that challenge as well.”
Therein lies his challenge anyway, and one he was already embracing.
As for the supporters, Farrell maintained: “I have absolutely no doubt that they will be 100 per cent on song. Paddy’s weekend again, a chance to win a Six Nations, it doesn’t get . . . well it could have been a little better. But Grand Slams are unbelievably hard to come by, and Six Nations are hard enough, as anyone would vouch for.”
First, though, they’ll undertake a painful review. Starting at the end, inside the 78th minute, James Lowe kicked long to five metres inside the English half but without finding touch. Then, with 90 second remaining, Conor Murray did opt to find touch but only did do inside the Irish 10 metre line, so affording England the platform which culminated in that drop goal with a second penalty advantage.
“I thought we could have kicked longer and out,” Farrell said in reference to the Lowe kick, before adding: “The other one was out and a little bit short and those are the small bits that matter in the end. Do you know what, at the end of the day – I might sound stupid saying this – but I thought it would have been unjust if England hadn’t won the game. They played really well and they deserved it.”
The inevitable risks in opting for a 6-2 split were exposed by the early head injury for Calvin Nash and compounded when the same fate befell his replacement Frawley early in the second half. England also scored tries both times as play continued, but the ripple effects were that Frawley initially occupied the right-wing position before Hugo Keenan was soon moved there, where he was less influential than at full-back.
Even when Keenan reverted there on foot of Frawley departing, it meant that one of Ireland’s best players on the day, Jamison Gibson-Park, shifted to the wing. He did well there too, making several good takes, one fine defensive read, some carries and a brilliant try-scoring pass for James Lowe’s second try which was more than a passable impression of either Mack Hansen or Nash.
However, it meant Ireland had used up their full allocation of back replacements with half an hour remaining, while the Bomb Squad didn’t begin to enter the match until the hour mark. That was not how Farrell would have planned it.
“You’re damned if you do,” said Farrell, “and therefore damned if you don’t. It’s the best thing since sliced bread when it goes well for you, isn’t it? I mean, yeah, it’s just rugby isn’t it? You go with a 5/3 bench and you can run out of backs very quickly depending on what you’ve got cover-wise.
“It’s not a factor for me. I mean it’s just a game. Sometimes you can be unlucky in terms of Calvin coming out of the line and hitting the guy, they scored the try on the back of that, and then Frawls comes on for him and, again, he was under the weather for the other try. It was costly enough periods, but it (the 6/2 split) is not why we lost the game.”
Regarding Frawley and Nash, Farrell said they were “okay within themselves, but going through the protocols”. It seems highly likely that both will be ruled out of the Scottish game, with Garry Ringrose and Jordan Larmour options on the right wing.
An animated and angry Farrell had what seemed a relatively heated exchange at the end of the first period with Steve Borthwick before they continued their conversation entering the tunnel toward the dressingrooms.
Whether or not Farrell was angry about Ellis Genge seeming to catch Tadhg Furlong on the head with a clear-out in the 24th minute we’ll probably never know, Not shown on any TV replays, it was somehow missed by TMO Ben Whitehouse, and it remains to be seen whether the English prop will be cited.
As for the row between the former Saracens team-mates and Lions coaching colleagues, both men played it down.
“What do you want me to say?” said Farrell, who maintained it was “nothing”, and added: “I was having a conversation with him and that was it. Me and Steve get on really well. There is nothing in that. You can try to make it out to be something but it’s not. No, there is nothing wrong there.”
