Andy Farrell has confirmed that in his post-match TV interview he described the Irish performance as “off” rather than “awful”. His mood had improved marginally by the time he met the assembled media, but he could still scarcely conceal his frustration at the manner of Ireland’s 35-17 win over a Fiji side who played 44 minutes with 14 men and 10 minutes of those with just 13.
“I thought we was off, I thought we was poor,” Farrell said in the immediate aftermath of an off-colour win.
“Some lads will be disappointed,” he added, before again lamenting the slow start, when the lack of urgency perhaps showed a lack of respect for Fiji. For all the technical and tactical flaws, that would have annoyed him as much as anything, and a much-changed side, along with the lack of hype and atmosphere due to the 1pm kick-off, offered no excuses.
[ Scrappy Ireland score five tries in comfortable win over undisciplined Fiji sideOpens in new window ]
“No excuse whatsoever because we are a squad and we have all been in camp the same length of time, and we are all learning together and yeah, no, there are no excuses there in that regard.
“We have been pretty good of late starting well and our start obviously wasn’t the best. You fast forward to the last play of the game, us kicking the ball out against 14 men with the scrum ready to play when the game is already won probably sums the game up.”
About the only saving grace was that the trio of debutants, Jeremy Loughman, Jack Crowley and Cian Prendergast were able to mark their momentous day with an Irish win, and ditto Tadgh Furlong in his first sting as captain.
“So, we’re delighted that they are able to celebrate in the proper way with their families etc. It’s such a momentous occasion for them.
“But for us, as far as the performance is concerned, pretty underwhelming. I suppose when you look back and you analyse a performance like that, you’ll get plenty of learnings out of it.
“But for Fiji, being down to 13 men, obviously with the red card and a couple of yellow cards, and the penalty count being 14-10 in our favour, we should have been a lot more clinical than we were.
“And I think that’s the moral of the story. We got into their 22 time and time again, and yes because of illegalities or the stop start nature, we lost our flow etc but we weren’t clinical enough by any stretch of the imagination.”
To add to the debit column, the hamstring issue which ruled Robbie Henshaw out of last week’s win against South Africa resurfaced inside the first five minutes, which must make him extremely doubtful for next week’s Nations Series finale against an admittedly much-changed Australian side who surprisingly lost to Italy for the first time ever in 11 meetings.
There must also be doubts about the fitness of Joey Carbery and Jimmy O’Brien next week as they both departed for HIAs and didn’t return.
[ Ireland player ratings v Fiji: Timoney, Beirne and Gibson-Park impressOpens in new window ]
“Yeah, he felt his hamstring,” Farrell confirmed of Henshaw. “He doesn’t feel like anything was too serious. He felt like, as a precautionary, he came off in time to make sure that he’s not done any more damage. We will just see how it is tomorrow.
“Joey and Jimmy will obviously go through the protocols but they seem fine in themselves in the dressingroom,” added Farrell, who also confirmed that none of the players ruled out of this game through injury (Hugo Keenan, Johnny Sexton, Andrew Porter, James Ryan and Josh van der Flier) trained last week.
“How things flow from Monday morning is going to be interesting for us all this week,” said Farrell wryly.
Against all of that, Bundee Aki has now completed his seven-week suspension. “Yeah, he’s good to play, he has been in camp the whole time.”
Crowley’s stock continues to rise and now, in part due to the misfortune of others, he could be on the bench again next week. Asked about the replacement outhalf’s performance in debut, Farrell said: “I thought he was good. He looked like he’d a bit of presence out there. He’s certainly not a shrinking violet. He backs himself. His first kick into the corner, straight into the five metre, was a big test for him for his character and he nailed that.
“He had one that went dead that was brought back, but he was in the game, you know? He was next moment focused. His communication is very good. It’s a good start for him.”
Furlong admitted that his experience as captain was “different”, adding:
“There’s stuff added to your prep that’s just a little bit different but I’ve enjoyed it. It’s a massive privilege for me to be able to represent the group at that level. Thanks to the boss man for giving me the chance. Not many people get to do it.”
All that said and done, Furlong agreed with his head coach that the game and Irish display had been stop-start.
“We never really got going. I know there was a lot of penalties and we kicked and mauled a lot. Maybe that’s something to do with it. We never launched a massive amount but it just felt a little bit stop start. We didn’t get into our flow where we could play multiphase really.”
