{"id":298211,"date":"2026-02-14T19:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T19:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298211\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T19:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T19:17:09","slug":"andy-farrell-praises-irelands-resilience-as-they-overcome-italy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298211\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell praises Ireland\u2019s resilience as they overcome Italy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the glass half-full fans, Ireland<\/a> earned a win after last week\u2019s despondency in France and for the glass half empty side Ireland held on by their fingertips against an Italian side<\/a> yet to beat them in the Six Nations<\/a> Championship.<\/p>\n

Coach Andy Farrell was decidedly in the former group as he praised Ireland\u2019s resilience, pointed out that there were errors but that they can at least meet England next week in Twickenham with pride regained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [Italy] were trying to batter the door down at the end there,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cSo, the resilience that we showed to win the game was fantastic to see. That\u2019s the bigger picture stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there\u2019s too many errors within our game at certain times, but the character shown to come back and have the courage to play the type of rugby that we did at times. The try that we scored with all those phases was as good a try as we\u2019ve ever scored. So, it just shows that we\u2019re able to back ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell also reminded people of how many of his frontline players are missing from the squad including Mack Hansen, Bundee Aki, Ryan Baird, Andrew Porter and Robbie Henshaw and pointed to the experience other players gleaned from the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience that some of these lads are getting is absolutely huge. I said outside that the lads that are watching in the stand or at home who are not here, the big names, the lads that have been there and done that, they\u2019ve been through all this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been through this type of pressure and come out the other side and they\u2019ve grown because of it. These lads that managed to do that today, to stand up tall, will certainly stand to them. So, [I am] delighted with the win against a very good Italian side.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was not all positives from Farrell. Like everyone the Irish coach saw a resurgent Italian side that pushed Ireland to the end in a scrambling, chaotic finish to the match.<\/p>\n

They also destroyed the Ireland scrum, which was a source of several penalties for the Italians. Farrell was asked how his team handled a strong Italian side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell not too well at times, obviously,\u201d said the Irish coach without elaborating.<\/p>\n

But the overall mood was one of having left France behind, got shakily past Italy, still with issues to mend but in better shape to face England in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we need to celebrate Edwin\u2019s [Edogbo] first cap, that\u2019s for sure, because it\u2019s one hell of a story and I\u2019m so pleased that we\u2019re able to get a win and show some fight to be able to get a win for him because his story\u2019s a phenomenal one,\u201d said Farrell referring to the Munster players injuries including a ruptured Achilles.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cEveryone\u2019s talking up England and rightly so because the form is good and they\u2019re playing some good rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another fantastic experience for us. It\u2019s a big away game, we had one of those last week, we didn\u2019t turn up for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to learn some lessons from it but we\u2019ve a big test coming up and we need to get excited about that and we are because it\u2019s another experience that will sound to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unusual in recent years, two of Ireland\u2019s best players on the day were from Ulster, right wing Robert Baloucoune and inside centre Stuart McCloskey. Baloucoune grabbed a second half try, while McCloskey\u2019s defence was impressive, while he played a hand in two tries.<\/p>\n

McCloskey fired the ball NFL style to Baloucoune in an offload for the winger\u2019s try and popped the ball up in the first half for fullback Jamie Osborne to run in and put Ireland 5-0 ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cDelighted for him [Baloucoune] because he\u2019s had a few caps before, but it\u2019s been a stop-start and it\u2019s been frustrating for him. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe talent for everyone to see when he puts the Ulster jersey on, to get the opportunity now coming back into fitness and to show what he can do at this type of level is very pleasing for him and for the rest of us,\u201d said the Irish coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see him believing in himself and backing himself, not just beating people and scoring tries, but winning balls in the air. A very good defensive decision-maker as well, so I\u2019m delighted for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell also highlighted that there is more to the game of McCloskey than the physical side of his game of trucking up hard ball through defensive lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe carried really well for us in parts last week,\u201d said the Irish coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s more to his game than that and he knows there\u2019s more to his game and he certainly addressed that this week as far as how he made others feel around the park. But his ability is to not just take the ball for the line, but to offload.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a great line by Jamie [Osborne], but Jamie knows who to follow because Stu is so good at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell praised too the impact of Jack Crowley, who came on for Prendergast in the second half. The one blemish on the outhalf\u2019s performance was unintentionally kicking a penalty dead when Ireland were chasing a bonus pint with the last play of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Jack played outstandingly well when he came on, so I\u2019m actually gutted for him because you know he wouldn\u2019t normally do that,\u201d said Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, there\u2019s a few things to check there as far as offside and jumping up and down in his eyeline for the kick, but still it was a bit of a shank, but that wouldn\u2019t be the overriding thought of what I take from Jack\u2019s game. I thought he was outstanding when he came on.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it was the first time Ireland had trailed at half-time at home to Italy in the Six Nations, the captain Caelan Doris was asked if there was a nervousness during the interval. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot overly. There was a pretty good feeling, despite the result at half-time. There was lots of good intent. When you\u2019ve got intent, it\u2019s just little fix-ups that you can get on top of. There was a different feeling to last Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have the intent, you can build on that. I think that\u2019s what we did in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the glass half-full fans, Ireland earned a win after last week\u2019s despondency in France and for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25747,61,60,1449,132479,43,15551],"class_list":["post-298211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-andy-farrell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-italy-rugby","tag-news","tag-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298211","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=298211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}