{"id":154473,"date":"2025-11-22T22:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T22:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/154473\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T22:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T22:50:09","slug":"andy-farrell-draws-positives-from-spirited-ireland-in-chaotic-south-africa-defeat-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/154473\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell draws positives from spirited Ireland in \u2018chaotic\u2019 South Africa defeat \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head coach Andy Farrell<\/a> wasn\u2019t having any of suggestions Ireland<\/a>\u2019s first half against South Africa<\/a> was a shambles. While it might not have been the most diplomatic opening question, shambles didn\u2019t seem like the most inaccurate word to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cChaotic. Yeah, I won\u2019t repeat your word because I think you\u2019re wrong,\u201d said Farrell after his side\u2019s 24-13 defeat at the Aviva Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland player ratings v South Africa: James Ryan\u2019s red card costs teamOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Bewildering, bemusing and befuddling were other words to describe a perplexing opening period in which Ireland drew three yellow cards and a red to end up with just 12 men on the pitch leading up to half-time.<\/p>\n

When James Ryan charged over bodies to hit Malcom Marx on the nose with his shoulder, he was shown a yellow card that was later upgraded to red on review. <\/p>\n

The subsequent cascade of yellows proved to be the undoing of Ireland and Farrell was far from pleased.<\/p>\n

\"RefereeReferee Matthew Carley upgrades James Ryan’s yellow card to a red. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen a game like that ever, and you think you\u2019ve seen it all, and I haven\u2019t seen a game like that ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose, first and foremost, you look at yourself and ask why things have happened. So, we\u2019ll do that and make sure that we learn the lessons from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my overriding thought of the game is that I\u2019m unbelievably proud, so for you to start a conversation off like that doesn\u2019t sit well,\u201d he added of the shambles descriptor.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Master bullies South Africa grabbed Ireland\u2019s throat and did not let them breatheOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was later put to Farrell that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu should have got at least yellow for his hit on Tommy O\u2019Brien, the Springboks outhalf making contact with the Ireland winger\u2019s head. It looked like card territory, referee Matthew Carley said he didn\u2019t believe it was a no-arms tackle and so no card followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you\u2019re asking the question because you thought so as well,\u201d replied Farrell. A room full of heads nodded in agreement. <\/p>\n

The question was tossed to captain Caelan Doris. \u201cI thought the same,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Tommy O’Brien. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

While the cards were obviously consequential to the outcome of the game, Ireland also didn\u2019t manage to execute aspects of their game as well as they did last weekend against Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can look at all sorts of different situations within the game and you can say that [the card] was the turning point. The yellow card that went to red was a try that we\u2019d scored and obviously pulled back,\u201d said Farrell of Ryan\u2019s dismissal. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe started the game pretty well, but then we went on the back foot, certainly under the pump there with scrum. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen a few stupid errors from us playing the ball through the ruck and I think with three offside penalties. They\u2019re the manageable ones that you don\u2019t give a team like that access. We did,\u201d Farrell added.<\/p>\n

But there was little doubt that the cards were playing on his mind. Over the past week South Africa had been loud in their criticism of red cards shown to Lood De Jager and Franco Mostert in their previous two games, claiming they were being treated unfairly by officials.<\/p>\n

Could that have had any influence?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we brought it up with the referees before the game and they said that would never be a factor,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cObviously, because this is a separate game. I\u2019ll let you be the judge of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast in the bin towards the end of the first half while South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus (left) watches play. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Both Farrell and Doris drew significant pride from how Ireland defended when to 12 either side of the interval. They also found a surge of energy towards the end to manufacture a rousing finish.<\/p>\n

Ireland pushed the Springboks right back to their line and hammered at the door for the closing minutes of the bruising battle. While the visitors managed to survive the late barrage, it certainly got the crowd to their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty unique,\u201d said Doris, synopsising the defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cChaotic is the word that sums it up,\u201d he added. \u201cLike Faz\u2019s reference earlier, I\u2019m proud of the fight, the courage, the character that we showed at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think you want that to transfer into points and results, but I do think it\u2019s going to stand to us going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Andy Farrell wasn\u2019t having any of suggestions Ireland\u2019s first half against South Africa was a shambles.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[53359,61,60,1449,43,1450],"class_list":["post-154473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-autumn-nations-series","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-news","tag-springboks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154473","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=154473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}