{"id":297524,"date":"2026-02-14T09:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T09:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/297524\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T09:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T09:41:09","slug":"can-ireland-bring-more-physicality-while-keeping-discipline-in-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/297524\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Ireland bring more physicality while keeping discipline in check?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOT ALL OF what we saw from Ireland in Paris last week was bad. Andy Farrell\u2019s players could take heart in a solid scrum and lineout, despite the worries heading into the game given some of the individuals who were unavailable through injury. And while it went somewhat unnoticed on a night where the visitors were totally outplayed by their hosts, Ireland\u2019s discipline was notably clean.<\/p>\n

Ireland gave away just six penalties at the Stade de France. That is markedly improved on November\u2019s return \u2013 11 v New Zealand, eight v Japan, nine v Australia and 18 v South Africa \u2013 while they also received six yellow cards and one red card across those four fixtures.<\/p>\n

As a result, cleaning up that discipline problem became a key focus heading into the Six Nations. Indeed, Andy Farrell identified it as the main area to address before the group went to Portugal for their pre-championship training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look back to our record in general,\u00a0discipline-wise, it\u2019s been a point of difference for us and making sure that it stays that way is something that we need to keep going over and addressing,\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n

\"andy-farrell-and-paul-oconnell\"
\n Andy Farrell and Paul O’Connell watch Friday’s Captain’s Run at Aviva Stadium. Bryan Keane \/ INPHO<\/p>\n

Bryan Keane \/ INPHO \/ INPHO\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, as far as our penalty count, penalties were concerned in the Six Nations last year, it was pretty good, but obviously the game\u2019s somewhat changing a little bit as far as penalties, cards, all of that, you know; you seldom see a game now where there\u2019s not a card. So, the game has changed. We have to adapt to that and work with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Portugal, discipline was drilled hard. On paper, Ireland got the rewards with a much better return in Paris \u2013 Joe McCarthy\u2019s misjudged ruck entry in the first half a rare poor decision.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet it could be argued that cleaner return came at a cost. Post-game, Farrell lamented Ireland\u2019s lack of intent against France, admitting it was something he\u2019d never thought he\u2019d see from an Ireland team. Strong words for his players to swallow.<\/p>\n

Ireland captain Caelan Doris was asked about those comments after yesterday\u2019s captain\u2019s run in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s probably a little bit of a feeling of not wanting to make a mistake, as opposed to going out to get it right and properly set down a marker last week,\u201d said Doris.<\/p>\n

So, did Ireland\u2019s lack of intent and physicality owe something to the increased focus on discipline?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to draw a connection between the two. If players have spent much of the build-up focusing on making better decisions and not giving away costly penalties, it would be natural if that created moments of doubt or hesitation when it comes to competing in the air, on the ground, or making a tackle as the French flood forward in numbers.<\/p>\n

A player might think twice about hitting a ruck with full speed and power when the coaches have been stressing the need to be clean in every action. Likewise when it comes to delivering a crunching tackle: Ireland missed 35 tackles in Paris, where 13 French players combined for a total of 18 dominant tackles; Jeremy Loughman was the only Irish player to make two dominant tackles, with six others making one each.<\/p>\n

\"jacob-stockdale-and-theo-attissogbe-contest-for-a-high-ball\"
\n Ireland struggled in the air against France. \u00a9INPHO<\/p>\n

\u00a9INPHO\n<\/p>\n

At the highest level, players constantly have to make split-second decisions, and it\u2019s a tough balance to strike when it comes to bringing the required levels of physicality and intent for Test rugby. That only becomes heightened if players are being more cautious around discipline or execution.<\/p>\n

Doris acknowledges the intent and discipline need to come hand in hand against Italy today.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s been a message throughout the week. There\u2019s an awareness that one can\u2019t go up and the other comes down. We need to have both, and that comes from building the right habits in training, being disciplined during the week, and hopefully that will pay off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something we\u2019re aware of, the lack of intent last week but pretty good discipline, and it can\u2019t be the reverse tomorrow. We need both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Doris\u2019s back row partner Jack Conan offered a slightly different take.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a balance to the two of them, isn\u2019t there?\u201d Conan told The 42.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the penalty count was much more favourable on Thursday in comparison to how it had been, but you can\u2019t\u2026\u00a0We want to be on the edge without being over it the whole time, and sometimes you\u2019ll take it and you get things wrong and you give a penalty away, but you can\u2019t let that take away from physicality and intent to get off the line, or whether it\u2019s carrying the ball or to make a difference with every single action you do, whether you\u2019re around the ball or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think because our discipline was better, it\u2019s not the causation why intent wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may be the case, but it\u2019s hard to ignore that as one problem area improved against France, a new one surfaced.<\/p>\n

Ireland go into today\u2019s meeting with Italy looking for a reaction. It will be interesting to see if they can deliver greater physicality and intent while still keeping the penalty count down over the remainder of this championship.<\/p>\n

And essentially, it\u2019s only one part of an overall package which needs to improve across the board against the Azzurri.<\/p>\n

Doris spent much of his week in leadership groups and meetings addressing what went wrong against Les Bleus, while the likes of Keith Earls, Cian Healy and Gary Keegan have all offered words of wisdom to the squad across the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThursday can\u2019t derail us too much, and that has been a bit of a message during the week,\u201d Doris says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously an awareness that it was poor and it wasn\u2019t good enough from us,\u00a0but equally there were some signs of some very good intent in training,\u00a0prior to France and again through the week this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, we\u2019re hoping to set a marker straight and being back at home as well,\u00a0it makes it even more important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NOT ALL OF what we saw from Ireland in Paris last week was bad. Andy Farrell\u2019s players could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,78880,60,43,3654,136638],"class_list":["post-297524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-intent","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297524","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=297524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}