There are press conferences where coaches manage expectations, and there are press conferences where something more honest slips through. Andy Farrell’s words after Ireland’s commanding Six Nations victory had the texture of the latter, a man speaking not to the room, but to a journey.
“I didn’t care whether we won or lost today,” Farrell said, and if that sounds like coaching cliché, the weight behind it suggested otherwise. “Just whether we grew as a group. Because we know where we want to go.”
Growing as a group, this time, came wrapped in a performance that gave Irish supporters exactly what they’d been waiting for since Paris exposed the cracks. That Farrell chose to talk about belief before he talked about the scoreline told you everything about where this Ireland squad has been these past few weeks.
Reference point
Paris was the word nobody avoided. Farrell had spoken during the week about hoping to see “a pretty steep incline in terms of performances” and Caelan Doris, when asked where this ranks, was unequivocal.
“This will now be a reference point that we look back on as a proper, good performance. That’s given us a lot of belief.” He added something that cut through the noise of the week’s controversy. “At the core of what we’re doing in training and camp, there has been belief still at the core and I think you saw some of that through how we played today.”
For Doris, captaining Ireland to this kind of performance, in this kind of atmosphere, carries its own particular weight. When asked where it ranks among his achievements, he allowed himself a rare moment of warmth.
“I suppose we’ll have a good think about that whilst we’re reminiscing later on this evening. It’s a special day. One hundred per cent.”
He spoke of the respect the players showed for one another, for the jersey, and for the Irish people, a word that would echo through every answer Farrell gave.
The tactical question, where was it won and lost, drew Farrell into something more expansive than X’s and O’s. He’d been here two years ago, he reminded the room, when Ireland lost to England in an atmosphere not unlike this one. That was one lesson. Paris was another.
“It’s about doing the things that you promised each other that you were going to do,” he said, “and be free. Get out of your own way and just play the game that’s in front of you.”
They did. The line breaks from deep, the breakdown hunting, the ground out effort on the opposition line, Farrell catalogued it with the satisfaction of a man watching a blueprint become reality. The moment he returned to most readily was Stuart McCloskey chasing back to put his man into touch. A detail, perhaps, in the broader sweep of the match, but to Farrell it was the whole story in a single act. “It just shows the fight and the spirit that these lads have got for one another.”
McCloskey was among several Farrell cited as emblematic of Ireland’s growth, alongside Rob Baloucoune, Ciarán Prendergast and Nick Timoney, players who arrived at this stage of the Six Nations carrying questions and left it with something considerably more valuable, the respect of their peers. “That,” Farrell said simply, “is pretty solid.”
The Jack Crowley question arrived inevitably. The number 10 jersey has carried more noise than any other this championship. Farrell handled it with characteristic care. “He was one of many who was very impressive in how they got over themselves.” He spoke of heavy legs after Paris, of a group honest conversation on the Wednesday, of every man committing to attacking the game and standing true to their word, protection and praise at once, the kind of answer that closes down the narrative without quite dismissing it.
As for the keyboard warriors who’d made the week an unpleasant one, Farrell was characteristically unbothered. “I’ve not been reading.” A pause. “That’s life, isn’t it? It’s not my life. It’s not these lads’ lives.”
Lowe blow
James Lowe’s injury drew the briefest answer of the evening, “it is what it is,” though the balance of the squad had ultimately worked out. Whether Lowe is available for the final fortnight remains one of the tournament’s lingering questions.
On the possibility of a Championship glory, Doris offered the team’s genuine position without dressing it up. “What will be, will be. We’ve got a final week. We’ll review the start of the competition, see how much we’ve grown. The important part is to keep doing that in the last two weeks.”
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Outside, the Irish crowd was still singing. Inside the changing room, Farrell had just shared tea with his players and spoken to them as a group. “It is special,” he said quietly. “I hope everyone at home is just as proud.”
For a squad that has spent weeks rebuilding from the inside out, pride, collective, hard earned, and no longer contingent on what strangers write in comment sections, may be exactly the right foundation for what comes next.
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