“Well obviously you get advice from what John (Scrum Coach, Fogarty) is saying and seeing in real time on the floor,” explains Farrell
2025 Quilter Nations Series, Aviva Stadium, Ireland vs South Africa – Yellow Peril!(Image: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
Andy Farrell and the Ireland coaching team watched the first-half, understandably deaf to the entreaties being screamed at every TV set across the country.Maybe it’s a soccer thing but we get to see manager’s make first-half substitutions in the round ball game, not so much in the more conservative oval ball arena.Yet despite scrum penalties raining down on Ireland, alongside previous examples of Andrew Porter getting on the ‘wrong side’ of referees from the get-go and the Laws allowing for cumulative offences to warrant a ‘next-penalty-and-it’s-a-yellow’ warning, Ireland remained as you were.
Something that would prove extra-costly when Sam Prendergast was sin-binned for offside – the offside wasn’t the issue, it was the cumulative collection of penalties, mainly caused by Porter.The Ireland coach put up a brave case for the defence afterwards, part of which suggested the loss of James Ryan to his 21st minute red minute had exacerbated the problems at the scrum.
Ireland vs South Africa – Andrew Porter after his yellow card(Image: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
So why not, make a first-half replacement, try to tackle the problem at source?
Said Farrell: “Well obviously you get advice from what John (Scrum Coach, Fogarty) is saying and seeing in real time on the floor. You get advice from what’s going on there.
“But it isn’t just one side, a scrummage is always about the pack of eight. The pressure also comes on one aspect because we’re under pressure in other areas as well. So, that’s why the pressure comes on, it’s not just on one area.
“Ah look, I don’t think…if you look at our scrum over the last five or six years, it’s been world class at times. There’s a Lions front-row in there. So, that’s not been an issue for us at all.
“It’s been a strength for us and we pride ourselves on that. Sometimes they catch you. They’ve (the ‘Boks) have caught plenty of other teams and the momentum, they kept on going for the blood, didn’t they?
This points to the idea Ireland felt Porter could come good again once James Ryan was back on the pitch, or maybe that sub loosehead Paddy McCarthy wasn’t experienced enough for this kind of pressure. But in the end referee Matt Carley made it a moot problem by sin-binning Porter in first-half injury time.
Perhaps Carley had lost control of his pre-match plan and composure; he had got the Ryan decision wrong, showing a yellow when his TV referee came back in and told him it was a 20 minute red.
While he can’t have been feeling too clever about two incidents where Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Tommy O’Brien both looked like they deserved cards; the sense remains of his having ‘evened’ those out.
He then sin-binned Sam Prendergast for, essentially, Porter’s indiscretions, Jack Crowley’s yellow came from panic in the resulting 13 man defensive crisis, before he finally got around to yellow carding Porter.
Take it as unlikely any amount of IRFU protesting to the powers-that-be will make a blind bit of impact this week but would bet Carley will be dressed down behind the scenes for the match descending into ‘chaos’ on his watch.
That is, what would the game have been like had he yellow-carded the Leinster loosehead after 20 or 30 minutes. There would be a different narrative, that’s for sure.
Farrell was also quick not to heap blame on Ryan either for what was an incredibly costly play – needlessly and illegally smashing a ‘Bok from a ruck Ireland had clearly won – but not slow to acknowledge a lot of the problems were self-inflicted.
“That’s what we’ve got to do, look at ourselves in the mirror with those types of things, the manageable ones that give them access but, at the same time, how we got through that, along with the cards and set-piece stuff, how they managed to fight through all of that. That’s what shines through for me.
“James is gutted. He’s upset in there. He apologised to the group. There were other things that went on within the game as well that we need to address. It’s not just one man’s doing by far. We’re all in this together.”
Ireland’s Head Coach Andy Farrell(Image: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
Meanwhile, this ahead of one of the shortest runs from November to the Six Nations ever and where Ireland face the best 6N scrummaging unit France in Paris on Thursday Feb 5. Match officials for the competition have yet to confirmed.
There are no more Test matches available to fix this potential front-row scrum problem albeit Porter/McCarthy, Sheehan/Kelleher and Furlong/Clarkson with Ryan, Joe McCarthy, Baird, JDF and Conan backing them up will be testing themselves against Harlequins, Leicester Tigers, La Rochelle and Bayonne in European Cup action.
They could mean facing such diverse front-rows England’s Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, France’s Uini Atonio, Emerick Setiano, Argentina’s Pedro Delgado, Boris Wenger, Joe Scalvi…they may even get referee Matt Carley again.
Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty won’t be hands-on with the Blues but the assumption has to be he will be hand-in-glove with Leinster’s Robin McBryde, who has a much respected salty reputation in this area. This could be a lot worse.
Said Farrell of the jump to Six Nations action: “Well, I just said to the lads that I think it’s been great for us as far as our journey, because when you look at the likes of Paddy (McCarthy), I thought he was really good today.
“And then the experience that you’re giving to people who are stepping up at this type of level now in Cian Prendergast and Nick Timoney, Tommy O’Brien, all those type of people that have got more and more experience. They need that. I mean, wow, that’s like fast-tracking international experience going through that type of experience tonight.”
Because if Ireland’s scrum performs as it did against South Africa on a first-up Thursday night in Paris, shipping a big defeat, their Six Nations campaign will be as good as over some two days before four of the others have even kicked a ball.
Here’s hoping the Welsh Robin can help get us bob, bob, bobbing along…
Ireland Yellow Cards: Paddy McCarthy 62, Andrew Porter 40, Jack Crowley 39, Sam Prendergast 34, James Ryan 27 upgraded to 20 minut red
IRELAND: Mack Hansen; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Rónan Kelleher for Sheehan 55, Paddy McCarthy for Porter 40, Finlay Bealham for Furlong 60, Cian Prendergast, Jack Conan for Baird 60, Craig Casey for Ringrose 72, Jack Crowley for O’Brien 31, Tom Farrell for Hansen 64, Porter for van der Flier 60
SOUTH AFRICA: Damian Willemse; Canan Moodie, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Cheslin Kolbe; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach; Boan Venter, Malcolm Marx, Thomas du Toit; Eben Etzebeth, Ruan Nortje; Siya Kolisi (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp, Wilco Louw, RG Snyman, Kwagga Smith, Andre Esterhuizen, Grant Williams, Manie Libbok.Referee: Matt Carley (Eng)