{"id":542570,"date":"2026-07-10T10:53:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542570\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:53:26","slug":"i-know-what-hes-trying-to-do-andy-farrell-not-taking-the-bait-from-eddie-jones-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542570\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I know what he\u2019s trying to do\u2019: Andy Farrell not taking the bait from Eddie Jones \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Farrell<\/a> has crossed swords with Eddie Jones on umpteen occasions in the latter\u2019s extensive coaching career. He is wise to the Australian\u2019s pre-match mind games. <\/p>\n

Jones claims he expects his Japanese pack to dominate the Irish scrum in Saturday\u2019s Nations Championship game in Newcastle, Australia (kick-off 8.10pm local time\/11.10am Irish), especially in the second half. <\/p>\n

Farrell offered a cryptic retort. \u201cIn the first and second half especially, we expect to dominate in all areas of the game,\u201d said the Ireland<\/a> head coach, tongue firmly in cheek. <\/p>\n

\"\"What to make of Ireland’s rotation for Japan?<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019s comment was on foot of Farrell picking the uncapped Connacht props Billy Bohan and Sam Illo on the Irish bench, and no doubt was aimed primarily at Saturday\u2019s referee Andrea Piardi. Ironically, he was speaking in the context of granting a prospective second cap to 21-year-old loosehead replacement prop Sojiro Otsuka after his debut off the bench in last week\u2019s 27-10 win over Italy. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s 21 going on 41; he\u2019s a very mature player. We\u2019ve got great confidence in the young boy,\u201d said Jones, adding: \u201cAnd particularly in the second half, we expect to dominate the Irish scrum.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Farrell had no issues with Jones upping the ante ahead of the game, which will be Jones\u2019s first after serving a four-match ban imposed by the Japan RFU for abusing match officials on a tour of Australia earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have loads of respect for Eddie,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cWe go back a long way and I know what he\u2019s trying to do. There\u2019s always something and it\u2019s great for you guys to throw the questions back over here. It\u2019s just a bit of banter thrown back from my end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IrelandIreland head coach Andy Farrell has laughed off remarks from Japan counterpart Eddie Jones in the lead-up to Saturday’s match in Newcastle, Australia. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

He is palpably excited about the four debutants in the Irish match-day squad, as well as Tadhg Beirne captaining Ireland for the first time and R\u00f3nan Kelleher reaching a half-century of caps. <\/p>\n

But as much as this game affords several individuals opportunities and landmarks galore, collectively Ireland played a get-out-of-jail card in their 33-31 win over the Wallabies<\/a> in Sydney last Saturday after a defensively porous first-half especially.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that we\u2019ve addressed all week,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously growth there; 31 missed tackles is not what we want, but I mean, first thing to say is, hats off to the opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they were physical. I thought they were the attacking threat that they always are. They\u2019re as tough a side to handle as anyone within world rugby, with the personnel that they\u2019ve got and obviously the coach (Joe Schmidt) and the athleticism that they have and the brand of rugby that they want to play. They\u2019re always going to cause that threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always see that with Southern Hemisphere sides. But that\u2019s not to say it\u2019s right that we miss those tackles, so a bit of lack-of-intent in some of our collision work has obviously been addressed and tidying up a few bits of our system stuff along the way as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big focus for us because Japan are an all-in-15 attacking side where everyone\u2019s involved. They\u2019re not just one-off runners. So, they\u2019re going to pose a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jeremy Loughman with Tadhg Beirne during training in Sydney on Tuesday. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

As to whether this recurring issue at the start of Test windows might be partially the consequences of Leinster<\/a>\u2019s blitz defensive system, Farrell said: \u201cIt is what it is. We can\u2019t use that as an excuse. If you leave an excuse out there, people will take it subconsciously, and we don\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to us to coach them in the right way. It\u2019s up to the players to adapt as quickly as they possibly can. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a few things that\u2019s homed in on them, and it\u2019s not just defensively; it\u2019s in all areas of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re as joined up as any other nation, but every province plays a little bit differently, so there\u2019s always that across the board. Leinster from that, week-on-week, has to be the priority, and yeah, there\u2019s a bit to learn from last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Loughman (concussion) and Robert Baloucoune, who was a late withdrawal against Australia due to a tight hamstring, should both be fit for Saturday week\u2019s game against New Zealand in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeremy Loughman is out for the 12 days but he\u2019ll be fit and he\u2019s fine and going through all of that. He\u2019s back up and running again. And so is Rob. We just thought it would be a little bit stupid of us to push him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit softly-softly with him to make sure that he\u2019s fit for next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell has crossed swords with Eddie Jones on umpteen occasions in the latter\u2019s extensive coaching career. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[25747,61,60,1449,86133,112],"class_list":["post-542570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-andy-farrell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-nations-championship","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542570","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=542570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}