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'I won't repeat your word': Andy Farrell defends Ireland after defeat to Boks
By Ian Cameron at Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has defended his players after their “chaotic” 24-13 Quilter Nations Series defeat to South Africa at the Aviva Stadium.
It was the Boks’ first win in Dublin in 13 years and one in which Ireland suffered a raft of yellow cards, at one point being reduced to 12 men for a short period.
It was a match in which Ireland struggled to gain a foothold, largely down indiscipline, a faltering scrum and a shaky lineout.
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However, they fought back bravely in the second half, with a number of rearguard defensive efforts repelling South African attacks from their try line in a second forty which Ireland won 6-5 on the scoreboard.
When it was suggested to Farrell that it was a “shambolic” performance from the home side, he bristled.
“I’d say chaotic. I won’t repeat your word, because I think you’re wrong,” said Farrell. “I’ve never seen a game like that, ever.
“I suppose, first and foremost, you need to look at yourself and why it’s happened. We’ll do that and make sure we learn the lessons from that.
“My overriding thoughts on it are that I’m unbelievably proud and for you to start the conversation off like that doesn’t sit well.”
Farrell believes Ireland can take a lot from the defeat, which ended a long run of home wins for the men in green.
“If you can’t learn from that [defeat], you’re in the wrong place really.
“Going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for their country. Certainly the first ten minutes of the second half was amazing, and you could see from the crowd, the amount of effort they put in, the crowd recognised that and supported them.”
Farrell implied he felt the scrums – an area in which the Boks enjoyed near total domination – could have been refereed better.
“Obviously, you can talk about all sorts of stuff that you’ve talked to the referees beforehand during the week and say those are the same type of pictures etc. But you’ve got to look at yourself first.
“You’ve got to give the referee the access to see you in whatever type of light that he was, obviously, seeing us in. And he saw a dominant scrum. And whether there’s illegalities within all that, we’ve got to see past that and be better than that.”
Due to a multitude of cards, Ireland were forced to mix and match players’ positions. Replacement fly-half Jack Crowley played much of the match in the back three, while centre Bundee Aki was at one stage packed down in the back row.
“People are covering obviously two, three positions. Different positions in attack and different positions in defence, so you’re just trying to get a bit of order and let the lads understand who’s coming back at what time and how we need to manage the game in that period.
“To be able to win a second half 6-5 under those circumstances, I know it doesn’t tell a full story of the second half, but it’s actually amazing, really, that that happened, or that occurred.
“The lessons to learn are, when you fight so hard to give yourself a chance, and you’re at 72 minutes, trying to overplay probably in your own 22, you’ve still got time on the clock to put ourselves back in the right field positions.”
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