{"id":283697,"date":"2025-11-14T09:59:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T09:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/283697\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T09:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T09:59:16","slug":"straight-talking-ireland-boss-andy-farrell-will-never-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/283697\/","title":{"rendered":"Straight-talking Ireland boss Andy Farrell will never change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Straight-talking Ireland<\/a> head coach Andy Farrell insists he will never shy away from frank conversations with his players after wielding the axe for Saturday\u2019s visit by Australia.<\/p>\n

Farrell has made nine alterations to his starting XV from last week\u2019s 41-10 win over Japan,\u00a0including handing 22-year-old prop Paddy McCarthy<\/a> a full debut, picking Mack Hansen<\/a> at full-back and Sam Prendergast<\/a> at fly-half.<\/p>\n

Having been frustrated by his side\u2019s display in the first half, when they only led by seven, the Englishman will continue to give frank appraisals of performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always think if you\u2019re not being honest, how are you helping people to grow?\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to say it as it is, otherwise people ultimately don\u2019t trust you as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always trying to chase some potential, probably that we don\u2019t realise ourselves really, and that\u2019s pretty exciting for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to hold ourselves accountable to do that otherwise what\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Farrell is wary of a backlash from \u201cwounded\u201d Australia<\/a> as he prepares for another showdown with Joe Schmidt.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies will run out at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday evening seeking to respond to last weekend\u2019s shock 26-19 defeat to Italy.<\/p>\n

Farrell led the British and Irish Lions<\/a> to a 2-1 tour success over Schmidt\u2019s side during the summer, having signed off before that secondment by guiding Ireland to a 22-19 win over the same opponents last November.<\/p>\n

Ireland were beaten 26-13 by New Zealand<\/a> in Chicago in their opening autumn fixture before bouncing back with last weekend\u2019s win at home to Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expecting a better performance from ourselves,\u201d said Farrell, who was assistant to former Ireland boss Schmidt before succeeding him in the top job in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully the best one of the season so far. Because it\u2019s going to be needed against a side that\u2019s very talented and a little bit wounded and that makes them a little bit more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia have lost five of their last eight matches but triumphed away to world champions South Africa<\/a> two weeks after salvaging some pride by winning the final Test of the Lions series.<\/p>\n

Schmidt has made six personnel changes to his team following the surprise setback against the Azzurri in Udine.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always prepare for a team who are at their best,\u201d said Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say at their best, what you\u2019ve seen before, and you\u2019re always expecting how they could be better than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go back to the game last year (in Dublin), the form then, how they handled the Lions tour, won the last Test and then went to Johannesburg and put it to the world champions there with a fantastic performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether they win or lose, it\u2019s always there or thereabouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll obviously be hurting from last week and they\u2019ve got a couple of players coming in from the outside that probably have no baggage and have nothing to lose, and want to right some wrongs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you look at their athletic ability and capability as a team, it makes them dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Straight-talking Ireland head coach Andy Farrell insists he will never shy away from frank conversations with his players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-283697","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\/283697","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=283697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}