Notes from South Dublin, Monday afternoon.
Bouncing around the team hotel in Mount Merrion trying to find the room for Australia’s press conference earlier in the week was like a re-enactment of the recent Ireland and Australian performances in the Autumn International series.
We thought we knew where we were going, but got it wrong and ended up where we shouldn’t have been. We followed the route we had taken so many times before when the All Blacks or England stayed in the hotel, but they took us into Cul de sacs, other breakfast rooms and chill-out areas with stuffed sofas.
We went in the wrong direction, made bad decisions, took left turns when they should have been right, went downstairs instead of upstairs and ended up on a Spinal Tap like tour around corridors and dead ends before arriving back to where we had started.
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We barged into the Wallabies kit room, turned around and strolled past players in their Australian kits smiling at us benignly, knowing we had wandered into their private domain of team spaces and game areas.
We passed the snooker room where a few of the players were cracking balls on the same table that Ireland world champion Ken Doherty uses for practice, his pictures and memorabilia on the walls.
Finally, we gathered ourselves to sheepishly admit defeat, find reception and take better instructions on board.
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Like the game against Japan, we got there in the end. Against Italy, Australia didn’t, and fell to their second defeat in 20 Tests against the Italians.
When the press conference began outhalf Carter Gordon and prop Angus Bell, who will play with Ulster in December, were much less perplexed than we were.
They acknowledged the poor performance against Italy was a driver to beat Ireland on Saturday, not a knock-back to retreat into their shells or be fearful. They were not bewildered or dazed.
Carter played the role of the breezy, blond-haired Aussie with a light, athletic surfer look, who had just returned from Rugby League and appeared fearless about everything.
Bell spoke most, admitting the players had honest conversations about performance. But there was no sense of weakness or vulnerability.
They conveyed determination to be better, confidence that they could achieve that, and would not take a step backwards. Their posture was politely defiant, leaning into the Irish challenge.
They were, as Irish players have frequently been at press conferences when Joe Schmidt oversaw the team, humble but not self-effacing, respectful but not docile.
Notes from west Dublin, 24 hours later.
The Irish players in Blanchardstown similarly reflected Andy Farrell’s messaging. They had not been as good as they had hoped to be. They made mistakes, they admitted, that will be rectified.
One theme was that the lineouts were bad because the players erred. For one of the set pieces, the in-form Ryan Baird said he didn’t hear a call. The fix for that was simple.
Ever listened. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Listen again. Listen better.
Again, there was a shared agreement of can-do among the assembled Irish players and coaches. They imparted a memorandum of firm assurance; that they could get to that place they had been before, a place that was familiar (a confident Tier 1 team in world rugby), but they just needed to clear some hurdles.
They struck a similar pose to Gordon and Bell back in the Sir John Nutting room at the Raddison, one of self-belief and boldness.
Tomas Clarkson, Baird, Bundee Aki, Sam Prendergast and Andrew Goodman spoke with a ‘trust us’ vibe.
Prendergast said Farrell told him that what he did on the pitch wasn’t about being perfect all the time and wanted him to look to do the right thing and not feel restricted.
Baird complemented people on good questions and then bridled at others. Aki was smiling throughout, light hearted and easy-going.
First year rookie Clarkson was relatively new to it and a little wide eyed. Attack coach Goodman was reassuring – hands up to the failures, but like the two Australians forward leaning.
The two sets of players stayed on message. In taking that approach, they belied the high stakes of Saturday night for Farrell and Schmidt.
Defeat means the losing coach will be pounded in the media.
Schmidt will be cast as the one who could not turn around the foundering Wallabies ship and Farrell as the coach who has lost his way with the team somewhere between the World Cup, the 2025 Six Nations (beaten by France 27-42 in Dublin), the Lions Tour and now.
Victory for Farrell would impart agency as well as the message people want to hear; that despite fumbling around in the corridors of their playbooks and performances, Ireland has direction.
With that, the public will buy in again, because right now they are hesitant and have lost a little faith.
Because of that, Saturday’s game is more consequential for Farrell than Ireland’s outing against the World Champions South Africa next week, who will be bankable favourites to win.
Losing to Schmidt, who with his strong connections has likely targeted Ireland as the most important of the series, would be further evidence that the Irish team is in transitional decline.
It is showtime for Farrell and Schmidt. But don’t try reading that from the public face of the players.
