Ireland's Rugby World Cup numbers adding up as Andy Farrell plays the long game
Andy Farrell brought the number of players used in this Six Nations campaign to thirty-three following Friday night's win over Wales.Now That's What I Call Rotation! It is, essentially, a World Cup Squad, get it?“Well, yeah, you've got to find out about people," said the boss afterwards. "I said it during the week, this is not freebies we're giving them."We're giving the starts or the chances out to people who deserve it. It just shows that the whole of the squad is hungry to be part of it and grow their squad."It's nice to feel that the whole squad thinks it's their team, you know, and they're all trying to contribute to us pushing forward.”There was specific praise for those who have taken their tournament chances, Robert Baloucoune, Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Joe McCarthy, Jack Crowley...“For people who's not really had that much exposure at this level to back up good performances, that's pretty impressive."We're probably talking about Robert Baloucoune, you know, to have a performance like he did last game up, and then to back it up this week is what you want."You want consistency of performance at this level, and you need that type of experience to be able to prove to yourself that you can do it.“Jack Conan, he'd have been a bit peeved off with a good performance of the team last time around there at Twickenham, so he got his start, he showed up really well.“Josh was good coming off the bench, Joe McCarthy was really good coming off the bench, so it's good to keep rolling with a few people and gain more experience of consistency of performance.”Crowley, once again, looked comfortable in his role as first-choice no10.The out-half show-cased a varied attacking package, scored a well-taken try, made a dozen tackles with only one miss which was an excellent return, especially considering, as Farrell pointed out, it wasn't an easy day for a no10.“Because the speed of ball wasn't nowhere near as quick as it was last week and the clear and obvious thing what they was doing was hitting in twos, slowing the ball down, almost playing up and in from the edge defence there."But when we kept going out the back and playing off slow ball, then we're playing into their hands really. Yeah, we need to be better than that really, you know.”The coach revealed has wasn't happy with the third quarter, where Ireland failed to kick-on following scoring just after the break.“I thought we didn't exit as good as what we've done in the past. They obviously pressured Jamison quite a bit and got some rewards from that.“There was an exit that we overplayed from about 25 or 30 out or whatever and you’ve just got to feel where the game's at and respect the game what it is."I thought we overplayed sometimes around halfway, sometimes you've just gotta respect what the opposition are doing well and they were defending pretty well. A bit of territory is what we needed to take the pressure off."That's a third win on the bounce but one that comes with work-ons.“We'll obviously review it, talk about it, but they'll come up with it themselves, we've already talked about it in there anyway."They know the score, that's what the lads do, they watch the game before we have the meetings anyway, so they'll be up to speed and be honest about that.”Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond
