{"id":283090,"date":"2026-02-06T01:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/283090\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T01:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:36:09","slug":"andy-farrell-disappointed-with-irelands-lack-of-intent-in-six-nations-opener-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/283090\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell disappointed with Ireland\u2019s \u2018lack of intent\u2019 in Six Nations opener \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Farrell<\/a> could scarcely conceal his acute disappointment with the performance of his Irish<\/a> team, especially in the first-half when they conceded 22 points without reply and, in his view, showed a lack of intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously very disappointed,\u201d he told ITV following France<\/a>\u2019s 36-14 win in the Stade de France to kickstart the defence of their Guinness Six Nations<\/a> crown. \u201cSomething that I never thought we\u2019d be saying about this Irish team, we had a bit of a lack of intent in that first-half – missed tackles, winning the scraps on the floor or the fight in the air, it\u2019s just intent. And if that\u2019s lacking you\u2019re not going to win any international game, never mind one in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elaborating on this theme at the post-match press conference, Farrell said: \u201cI think you make your own luck in this game and you make your own luck by being ahead of the game, [especially] without the ball, and I thought we certainly lost that battle in the first half. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think you make your own luck in things like the high balls, winning the scraps on the floor, running through tackles and ourselves missing tackles, etc … that\u2019s the main part of the game, isn\u2019t it? And we certainly came off second best in that regard in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a response to that in the second half, and a gallant response, but it\u2019s not what we want to be, a team responding to something that we need to show up with from the get go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s defensive statistics made for some alarming reading, with 38 missed tackles and a 67% completion rate according to the Six Nations service.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jamison Gibson-Park dejected after the game. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t need to look at the stats,\u201d Farrell interjected. \u201cI watched the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were fears that the wet weather might hurt Ireland in that it would lead to more scrums. But on the plus side, despite missing three looseheads and their first-choice tighthead, Ireland\u2019s scrum held up well, as did the lineout, where they won 16 of their 17 throws.<\/p>\n

But despite employing a kicking-based game in the Parisian rain, for the first 50 minutes or so anyway, this met with little reward, as Ireland reclaimed only four of the 19 \u201ccontestables\u201d they sent into the sky. <\/p>\n

The weather was the same for both sides, Farrell noted: \u201cSome seemed to stick for the French side and I suppose they got a bit of momentum from the scraps that they got from us not being able to win the ball or win the 50-50s. And obviously they\u2019ve got the pace out wide to take advantage of that and they did that really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell said of the build-up to this Six Nations opener, and in the wake of a sobering night: \u201cI learned a lot about the team and the individuals. I suppose these type of occasions, these type of events are a first for quite a few of our group.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s head coach Andy Farrell before the Six Nations match in Paris. Photograph: Adam Davy\/PA <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game that you play for your country, whether it be a big win or a tough loss, there has to be a learning curve. We have to take those learnings from that. As a group and as individuals, we need to use it in the right manner and move on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt that we had the right intentions with our preparation of how we wanted to play the game. Hopefully that does stand to us. But you cannot play the game at this level without having the right intention. It\u2019s an absolute must. It\u2019s the first thing that has to be done on the list – to make sure that it\u2019s delivered every single time that we take a field.\u201d <\/p>\n

Following on from France\u2019s emphatic 42-27 win in the Aviva last March, and the chastening losses to New Zealand and South Africa in November, there undoubtedly seems to be a widening gulf between the world\u2019s elite teams and Ireland. But Farrell is confident that this gap can be bridged.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I am [confident], because I know the people that we\u2019ve got. I know the good people that we\u2019ve got, the good players that are not just here but who are at home as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know that there\u2019s a determined group to make sure that we are constantly up there at the top of world rugby to be able to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will always be the case.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Caelan Doris and Tadhg Beirne dejected after the match. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Caelan Doris echoed his head coach in stating: \u201cI think the bench made a good impact. There was some good resolve in the second half but we don\u2019t want to be a team that\u2019s chasing. We left ourselves too big a mountain to climb. And that\u2019s down to some passiveness in D, not being connected, not being dominant in collisions, allowing them to flourish and keep the ball alive in attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish captain also spoke about coming back into work on Sunday ahead of next Saturday\u2019s game against Italy at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 2.15pm) and Farrell said the squad simply has to regroup strongly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell we have to, don\u2019t we? Otherwise the disappointment stands for absolutely zero. So we have to be honest with each other and say it as it is, and roll up to work next week and make sure that this stands for something. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to use it not just individually but obviously collectively to make sure that we give a better showing of ourselves throughout the rest of this competition, obviously starting with Italy next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell could scarcely conceal his acute disappointment with the performance of his Irish team, especially in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25747,1452,61,60,1449,43,15551],"class_list":["post-283090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-andy-farrell","tag-france-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-news","tag-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283090","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=283090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}