A first home defeat to France in 10 years, the first back-to-back opening round losses for 23-years, the records Andy Farrell didn’t want to break!
Whichever way Farrell looks at it; the records have now been broken and after his first 11 games six are wins; it places him fourth on the coaches list in the professional era.
Maybe that’s not a fair comparison, Joe Schmidt, Declan Kidney and Eddie O’Sullivan all took over Irish teams in a state of positive flux.
Warren Gatland won five of his first 11, taking over after one round of the 1998 Five nations and an Irish team who had finished bottom of the five nations table three years in a row.
However that nostalgia of late 90’s hope for Irish rugby teams isn’t going to be returning anytime soon.
Yes Ireland were down four big names; Jonny Sexton, Conor Murray, James Ryan and the suspended Peter O’Mahony a massive loss to any Ireland team, but Farrell has assumed a squad on the decline.
Sexton; while captain has struggled to consistently stay fit through the last number of years, succession planning for the out-half should have been Farrell’s first priority.
Questioned pre-match; the decision to put Billy Burns ahead of Ross Byrne turned out negative. Byrne has been solid and dependable in the Leinster jersey, Burns was rattled after his kicking error finalised the Wales defeat.
While Sexton’s absence will always hurt Ireland, his disappearance from the green jersey will become more apparent over the next two seasons. Losing Connor Murray with Sexton was always an issue Ireland would struggle to manage.
Another call the Ireland manager got wrong was James Lowe ahead of Jordan Larmour. Unlucky not to hold onto the ball for an attempted first-half try, his defensive susceptibility was exposed particularly for France’s second try, where Larmour would possibly have added a more balanced approached to the Irish side.
While two six nation’s defeats in a row will no doubt raise questions about the future of the Ireland head coach, it must be taken in the context of the previous two years.
While Farrell has made errors over his opening 11 games, Covid-19 certainly impacted his decision making and attempts to form any shape on the team. Farrell’s opening game being the Scotland six nations opener, which Ireland won.
However the error’s in the Farrell era all started at the end of the Schmidt era. The IRFU triggering a succession plan, something Farrell has failed to develop for his out-half.
Let’s be fair and review the Farrell era as a whole at this stage, a stirring win over Scotland followed by an impressive 10 point win over Wales before being crushed by England in Twickenham, where just about everything failed and the enforced Covid-19 suspension may just have saved his hide.
The restart in October saw an expected but unimpressive win over Italy, then being outfoxed by France. So into the dummy match wins on Amazon prime over Wales, followed another lesson from England and most worryingly an all-mighty slog against Georgie where just three second-half points were registered.
The Farrell era has not been impressive in the mind’s eye, while sometimes the results can paper the cracks, those cracks emerged after the famous Dublin win over New Zealand in 2018 with Schmidt, Farrell and co unable to produce enough cement to do the patch work.
This however is now Farrell’s team, the game with Italy in two week’s time now holds a doubled edged sword as both performance and victory are required.
Ireland have not found trips to Rome all that encouraging in the last couple of years, this time round Farrell cant experiment as he may have hoped.
Pre-tournament; Burns, Ruddock, Ross Byrne et al may have been in his mind as the right fixture to test temperament for his new look team.
Not now; surely Sexton must start, at least until the game is as close to settled as possible. That brings with it risk that Farrell would have wanted to eliminate previously, surely preferring to rest key players such as Sexton with England and the Murrayfield trip still ahead.
However two games into the 2021 six nations, records have gone against the Ireland head coach. Performances haven’t given an impression that we are on the right road to the 2023 World Cup, which Farrell repeats as his target.
Like all business managers who draw out their long term plan, the here and now needs to be executed to get to year four.
Farrell’s pay masters in Dublin 4 will no doubt have their eyes on the four year management plan and how it’s progressing.
Those same paymasters are the ones who got the first call wrong, sometimes succession planning is the wrong call for you’re business.
