Andy Farrell<\/a> and his players, the after-effects will have lingered into the journey home and may continue to be felt throughout the rest of a demanding month.<\/p>\nSoldier Field hasn\u2019t changed a jot but the contrast postmatch in the bowels of the stadium compared with after the historic 40-29 win nine years ago could hardly have been starker. <\/p>\n
Whereas back then the Irish squad celebrated joyously and noisily before happily filing along the mixed zone, this time they spoke wearily or traipsed quietly, heads bowed, to the exits. Meanwhile the All Black players smiled contentedly, leg one of the Grand Slam secured before a week in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s said a team learns more from its defeats than its wins and Farrell concurred. \u201cYou have to. You need to be brutally honest because if you not, then you\u2019re wasting an opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s zero excuses from here on,\u201d he added in reference to match sharpness. \u201cThat\u2019s been and gone now, but we need to buckle down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet last autumn, in a four-match programme similar to this one, Ireland seemed a little damaged by their opening loss to New Zealand, and this third successive loss to the All Blacks could sting even more. <\/p>\n
This month looks even more challenging now with games against Japan, Australia and South Africa over the next three Saturdays. <\/p>\n
Farrell certainly did not shy away from that: \u201cIf we can\u2019t stand up to that challenge, then we shouldn\u2019t be here anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got the opportunity to nail it down, haven\u2019t they? I suppose this is a good window to see where we\u2019re at. Where individuals are at. If that doesn\u2019t get us excited as a group, nothing will.\u201d <\/p>\n
Farrell\u2019s scope to delve deeper into his 36-man squad looks relatively restricted but this team needs restorative performances and wins. <\/p>\n
Stuart McCloskey\u2019s performance was a positive \u2013 \u201che was a handful, wasn\u2019t he?\u201d agreed Farrell \u2013 but the Ulster centre will probably be ruled out of next week\u2019s game against Japan, and perhaps for even longer, with a groin injury. The trip home effectively makes it a six-day turnaround, which will probably lead to fresh legs being brought in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re back on Monday morning so that\u2019s a day-ish missed with a bit of jet lag or whatever so we\u2019ll see how people turn up when we do land back and what the mood is within the camp and how we rotate it from there,\u201d said Farrell.<\/p>\n
Ireland are likely to contest Tadhg Beirne\u2019s harsh red card when the Munster lock faces a disciplinary hearing this week. Even Beauden Barrett disagreed with the decision by foul play review officer Dan Jones.<\/p>\n
Eddie Jones\u2019s Brave Blossoms are match hardened, having won three of four games in the Pacific Nations and played well in a 19-15 defeat to Australia a fortnight ago before losing 61-7 to a rampant Springboks on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Ireland cannot afford to take them lightly, even more so now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how important the autumn is to us, particularly this next game now,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cIf you look at the significance of world ranking points, playing against a side like Japan … becomes massively important. So it\u2019s about being honest with each other and making sure that we learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
When seeking a strong platform, much of the tight five could remain intact, and the match looks to be a gilt-edged opportunity to restore Caelan Doris to number eight following his encouraging return against the All Blacks off the bench.<\/p>\n
Jacob Stockdale might also be given an opportunity, and ditto Craig Casey at scrumhalf, while it will be interesting to see how Farrell employs his two out-halves henceforth. <\/p>\n
\u201cI though he controlled the game pretty well,\u201d said Farrell of Jack Crowley\u2019s performance. \u201cAccuracy and a few bits [could be improved], but good decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head coach referenced Crowley\u2019s slightly overcooked cross-kick for McCloskey on the left touchline. \u201cI said to him at half-time, \u2018good decision\u2019. It was just execution. I thought he tactically played the game pretty well. He\u2019ll be better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, Farrell appeared to believe that Crowley\u2019s pass to Jamie Osborne just before the hour mark was too high, although on review from a different camera angle, Osborne\u2019s knock-on appeared to be around his midriff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s actually a lovely line from Jamie. It was just poor execution and it pinged off his shoulder so we\u2019ve obviously got to be better at that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t too many opportunities for the attack but what we did have, we needed to convert that pressure into more points, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Tamaiti Williams, Wallace Sititi and Damian McKenzie giving New Zealand more impact off the bench, that pivotal moment was one of three Irish handling turnovers that led directly to tries by the All Blacks in the final quarter.<\/p>\n
The Irish attack was not helped by five lost lineouts, the tone set by a mistimed lift for Dan Sheehan\u2019s first dart, which Tadhg Furlong couldn\u2019t gather at the tail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose people are only human but at the same time, we work hard on not letting that type of stuff affect us,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cSo, there\u2019s one thing for sure, the New Zealand defensive lineout has been top drawer for a long time now so that\u2019s always going to be part of it. We need to look at ourselves, first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Irish defensive lineout did some damage too, with Ryan Baird making a couple of important steals. \u201cThat\u2019s his forte isn\u2019t it?\u201d said Farrell. \u201cHe\u2019s very athletic in that regard. So, he\u2019ll be happy with some aspects of his game, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This much hyped return to Chicago was damaging, both on and off the field, and potentially both in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1451,25747,61,60,1449,112],"class_list":["post-119031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-andy-farrell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}