Andy Farrell looking for benchmark performance from Ireland in final Test

The first Test win in Cape Town may have broken new ground but new Ireland defensive coach Andy Farrell has said he and his fellow coaches have told the players they want tomorrow's third Test performance in the series decider in Port Elizabeth to establish the benchmark.

“I don’t think we’ve set the bar anywhere yet. I think it was an heroic performance in the first Test, down to 13 and 14 men,” said Farrell.

“It was an unbelievable performance of true grit but we’ve said to the lads this week: We’re looking for a benchmark performance, to take forward and I think there’s more in us, a more complete game, and we’ll need to show that at the weekend.”

But this ‘next job’ focus and desire to set the bar higher comes from the players in any case.

“The boys, after every game and after every training session, say what we need to improve on and there’s plenty – you can ask Rory (Best) – which we need to improve on, which is great. You would expect, wouldn’t you, that to win a Test series in South Africa you need to be at your best. We can still improve and hopefully that benchmark game is coming this weekend.”

Come the end of Saturday's third Test and this tour in Port Elizabeth, all 32 players in the travelling squad are likely to have sampled at least some game time, with 20 players having started at least one of the Tests and Matt Healy in line to become the tour's fourth test debutant.

Necessity being the mother of invention, a host of other relatively inexperienced players have also been exposed to Test rugby against a southern hemisphere heavyweight.

Viewed in that light, Farrell has hailed this series decider as invaluably informative.

Discussing the selection strategy, Farrell said after the squad’s final run-out at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Friday afternoon: “Selection is a number of things: injuries, whether people are fresh and raring to go or a little bit tired etc, and obviously at the end of a long season we’ve got to make sure that we get the right people on the pitch for a certain game.

“The five changes that came into the starting side last weekend did a fantastic job and we’re nearly pulled it off up until the last quarter of the game but, again, we’ve selected a side for this week, the best side that’s going to put their best foot forward for Ireland to win a Test series. We feel good that we’ve been able to share the workload on the tour and that everyone’s had a chance.

“We’re finding out about a lot of people on this tour as well and we feel we’re in a fantastic situation because by giving these guys the experience on this tour we’ve created a lot of headaches for ourselves going into a big year.”

Accordingly, Farrell hailed the tour as “everything that I hoped it would be. I said when I started the job that it’s a fantastic time to come into this job because of the games we’re going to go through in my first year. A Test series in South Africa – it really doesn’t get any harder than that.”

“I think we’re in a fantastic situation now at one-one – a chance to win a Test series two-one and find out and give the players the experience of the cauldron of a Test match that’s going to be at the weekend – to see if we can or we can’t. I think it’s fantastic for the players, and it’s certainly fantastic for me. You find out a lot about what we need to improve on, what we’ve got and what we’ve certainly seen that.”

For the captain Rory Best, whose status has been enhanced on this tour, and for the rest of the core of this side, this is the 52nd week and 17th Test of the season. He's experienced his fair share of tour-ending anti-climaxes, but maintains this will be different.

“It’s like what Faz said, the couple of changes last week freshened things up and it kept the boys on the toes because there was a lot of good performances in the first Test and boys came in and really stepped up last week, for certainly a large part of the game. In terms of the body, look it’s a massive Test match, it’s an opportunity to go out and win a Test series in South Africa.

“I think there were times when you got to the last game of the season and you’ve one foot on the beach and that’s definitely not the case now. You can tell the way we went about training on Tuesday and Thursday, there was a real intensity about it. I’ve said when we first arrived in South Africa, the fact that we’ve had those breaks over the European weeks, it’s not what you want but it’s really freshened us up.

“With three games in a row, we knew what we were coming here to do. It’s been tough and we knew all of that but we have one big push left, one massive 80 minutes to try and do something that no other Irish team has done and very few touring teams have done – and that’s win a Test series in South Africa.”

On paper, all things considered, this looks potentially even tougher than last week despite the altitude factor, given the pivotal momentum shift in the second half in Johannesburg and the near certainty that the Boks can hardly play as badly again in the first hour.

“Look, we feel confident in our ability,” said Best. “We know it’s going to very tough, we’ve said that before every Test so far. It’s gonna be a massive game, it’s gonna be a physical game and there’s no doubt the Springboks will have their tails up after the last quarter of the previous Test.

“But we can take a lot of positives from the first 50-60 minutes of the last Test and large parts of the 80 minutes of the first Test so we’re going in and we feel that we have the game-plan to win it. Now, it’s up to us as players.

“The coaches have to largely step away now, and it’s up to us as players to step up mentally, physically and make sure that the tactics we’ve talked about all week aren’t just words, that we implement them at the game.”