Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll insists that Andy Farrell’s side must try something different during the upcoming end-of-year series.

The Irishmen will take on the All Blacks, Japan, Wallabies and Springboks in a challenging set of games for a team that have shown signs of decline.

First up for Farrell’s charges is New Zealand, who themselves have not exactly convinced in 2025 but who are battle hardened following the Rugby Championship.

Ireland’s players, in contrast, have barely had any minutes for their provinces let alone at Test level this season.

British and Irish Lions impact

That is partly due to the British and Irish Lions series, which had a heavy representation from Ireland and were of course led by Farrell.

With the likes of Andrew Goodman, Simon Easterby and John Fogarty, coaches who are part of the Irish set-up, also on that tour, O’Driscoll believes that the other Home Nations will now know their secrets.

“I think the big thing from his point of view is there has to be a reinvention, there has to be lots of new detail come in because he’s handed all that IP across to three other teams,” he said on Off The Ball.

“There’s got to be a rethink. You can’t just go back and do this tried and tested and just hope it’s done a little bit better.

“We failed with that in 2019 under Joe Schmidt, it just didn’t work, where teams had us worked out. There has to be a good bit of nuance put into whatever game plan we’re going to see on Saturday.

“The non-negotiables are carrying with intensity, the clarity around clearing out at ruck time, the speed of that ruck ball – that will just make any game plan a lot more seamless and allow for that nuance to come in.

“If they slow our ruck ball down, we’re in for a long day.”

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Conservative Andy Farrell

O’Driscoll has certainly stuck with what he knows in terms of the team selection after picking 12 Leinster players in the starting line-up.

However, with the Rugby World Cup two years away and the head coach presiding over an ageing squad, many observers, including the Ireland legend himself, want to see some younger players introduced over the next month.

“If you look at Faz, he hasn’t really ever been a huge risk taker but yet we’ve all been screaming saying we need to get some of these young lads out playing against better opposition in the Test match arena,” O’Driscoll said.

“I think we’ll see a lot over the course of the next four weeks as to some of the personnel that he really thinks are going to be part of his squad.

“Or maybe it’s going to be the tried and tested again, which I think would frustrate a lot of us.”

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