{"id":268503,"date":"2025-11-07T09:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268503\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:33:14","slug":"ive-been-reading-its-a-crisis-in-irish-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268503\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019ve been reading it\u2019s a crisis in Irish rugby’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japan<\/a> boss Eddie Jones backed Andy Farrell to revive Ireland\u2019s fortunes as he put the \u201ccrisis in Irish rugby\u201d in perspective ahead of Saturday\u2019s clash in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s autumn campaign began in deflating fashion with last weekend\u2019s 26-13 defeat by New Zealand<\/a> in Chicago after their two-year reign as Six Nations<\/a> champions ended in March.<\/p>\n

Recent underwhelming performances have sparked concerns about the team being a fading force following the highs of the historic 2022 tour success over the All Blacks<\/a> and spells at the top of the world rankings.<\/p>\n

Jones, who replied \u201ca hundred per cent\u201d when asked if his Brave Blossoms can win at the Aviva Stadium this weekend, expects rival head coach Farrell to overcome the \u201csticky period\u201d but warned it may take time.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one in Ireland<\/a> wants Ireland to lose, and so the expectation is to win every game; when they lose a game it\u2019s a calamity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Japan <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve read the (Irish) papers for a while and I\u2019ve been reading it\u2019s a crisis in Irish rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you\u2019re still top four in the world \u2013 20 years ago you came on a European tour and Ireland was the easiest game of the tour. The change in Irish rugby has been absolutely extraordinary.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going through this difficult little period now, which I think you\u2019ve just got to accept and the young players will come through but they all need time in the saddle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t just hop on the horse and be the most experienced jockey in the world. They need to learn, they need to experience a bit of pain and obviously that\u2019s going on at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a little sticky period that Ireland are going through. But they\u2019ve got the nucleus of a strong team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones pointed to the recent retirements of former captains Johnny Sexton<\/a> and Peter O\u2019Mahony to part explain Ireland\u2019s perceived decline.<\/p>\n

Fellow Test centurions Keith Earls<\/a>, Conor Murray<\/a> and Cian Healy<\/a> have also called time on their careers since the team suffered a quarter-final exit at the 2023 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Jones dismissed Farrell from his backroom staff after being appointed England<\/a> head coach in 2015 but praised his impact in Ireland, which began as an assistant to Joe Schmidt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been really impressed by him,\u201d the Australian said of Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always going to be a good coach. He had that feel for the game, a good personality, good character, tough but engaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that he took over from Joe \u2013 and probably the first 12 months was quite difficult \u2013 he\u2019s done an absolutely fantastic job.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow comes the next test: how do you adjust the team, because you\u2019ve got a new team you need to create?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a good test for him but he\u2019ll handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones has made three changes to Japan\u2019s starting XV following last weekend\u2019s 61-7 loss to world champions South Africa.<\/p>\n

Scrum-half Naoto Saito<\/a>, lock Epineri Uluiviti<\/a> and number eight Faulua Makisi come into the team, with Shinobu Fujiwara<\/a>, Jack Cornelsen<\/a> and Michael Leitch<\/a> dropping to the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan boss Eddie Jones backed Andy Farrell to revive Ireland\u2019s fortunes as he put the \u201ccrisis in Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-268503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}