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The curious Andy Farrell claim about 'fantastic side' England
Ireland boss Andy Farrell has shared his thoughts on Steve Borthwick’s England two days out from Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash at Twickenham.
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The English saw their rare unbeaten start to the championship blown to smithereens in Scotland the last day and they now face the daunting prospect of hosting the back-to-back title-chasing Irish in London.
Farrell’s son Owen was England’s skipper for the recent Rugby World Cup but he has since taken a Test rugby sabbatical and wasn’t in the firing line when Borthwick’s side were heavily criticised for the meek manner of their round three surrender on February 24 at Scottish Gas Murrayfield.
Despite a bronze medal finish at France 2023, England fans are fearing that Borthwick isn’t the head coach capable of taking the team forward in the long run, and his reputation was hugely dented by the Scottish loss.
Farrell, though, hasn’t tuned into this negativity, claiming instead that England are a dangerous opponent for Grand Slam-chasing Ireland. “I don’t get involved with the criticism at all,” he said at an airport hotel media briefing on Thursday in Dublin before he flew to London with his team.
“I don’t look at that. I look at the individuals, the way that they are playing, the coaching staff that they have got, the plan that they have got.
“I know that they have got a fantastic side that is going to be preparing to give it everything they have got at the weekend so that makes them unbelievably dangerous. We just prepare for them to be at their best and if that is the case it’s going to be one hell of a battle.”
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What particular threat does he worry about? “All of it. This is why I constantly say everyone loves the Six Nations so much because it changes week on week.
“Scotland were unbelievably unlucky for all sorts of reasons in not getting over the line against France. I’m sure that concentrates the mind in the next two weeks leading up to the England game.
“I have no doubt that England would have loved to put their best performance out against Scotland and come away with a victory, which is unbelievably hard to do, but I have no doubt that over the last two weeks that (loss) concentrates their mind to have another chance to have a crack at us.
“So you expect them to be at their best and if they are at their best they are going to be as hard as anyone in world rugby to beat.”
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Despite England copping red cards in the first half of their two most recent championship meetings with Ireland, it took Farrell’s team a considerable time to make that advantage pay as they repeatedly got bogged down at the ruck.
Will slow ball be a factor in this weekend’s renewal? “I’m not Mystic Meg, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he chuckled. “England had a say in how we performed that day. You take every game at its own course really and judge it.
Andy Farrell explains his recall of Hugo Keenan, the non-selection of Garry Ringrose, and the "freak" training ground injury sustained by the absent James Ryan, with Liam Heagney ?? #ENGvIRE #GuinnessM6N #IrelandRugby #rugby pic.twitter.com/R0SBBPNOtx
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 7, 2024
“England did very well at slowing us down last year, a lot of stoppages within the game. It wasn’t just errors. The game was slow. Whether that is a tactic of theirs I don’t know, but we will have to expect more of the same I would have thought.
“We’ll take each minute as it comes. That’s the nature of the game. That was a year ago and you go back a couple of weeks against Wales, we want to do better than that as well so it’s always going to be that case.”
An ex-England midfielder as a player, ex-rugby league great Farrell coached as an assistant under Stuart Lancaster between 2012 and 2015 before moving across the Irish Sea the following year to coach the defence for Joe Schmidt.
He then became head coach for the 2020 Six Nations yet every time he goes back to Twickenham with Ireland, he is asked if the fixture means more to him given his background in the game. The same happened again in Dublin before he headed to the airport.
“I get asked this every time I go back to Twickenham and I have been back quite a bit now. It’s no different to any other game. We and certainly I tend to concentrate on just the week ahead and this game is no more important than the first game in Marseille or more important than the Italy game at home or Wales at home.
“It’s another chance for us to go out there and show the best of ourselves albeit a tough old task going to Twickenham. Everyone knows that it’s a tough place to go and get a victory but that is the challenge that is in front of us every week.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Best team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
68 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
2 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real speech. They claim free speech. The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
68 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
2 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to commentslooking forward to RWC2027 …. Boks on mission impossible for the Three-in-a-row, ABs to prove they being on par, France wishing to crown the “DuPont-era”, Ireland knocking on the Semi-Door ….. until then we’ll probably have to deal with Weird Ben’s fantasy-RWC23 (fun fact is, the drivel always creates a flooding of comments) …..
221 Go to commentsBen Smith you really make some good points in this article, the Springboks were not close to perfect and good still beat the All Blacks, imagine if they were as good as they were against France what a hiding the All Blacks would have gotten… maybe another Twickenham drubbing
221 Go to commentsIt is a good argument to keep the Rebels for one more year but also isnt this just opening the door as well for keeping them beyond 2025. If they can create some sort of financial stability in the next year and if their performances lift as they have this season then how would RA even cull them after that? It might be the most cost effective decision at this stage and perhaps many people are guilty of keeping relationships going because of the cost to decouple but then again when does that ever work out well?
28 Go to commentsDear Ben Smith you are a genius! God please become the next all blacks coach that can take on the mighty BOKS. Your rugby acumen is second to none - imagine your dads sperm bounced as unfortunately as that oval ball did….we would not be blessed with your presence. Just as the all blacks were missing a man you too are missing a chromosome for 80% of your life, so your insights are not only profound but ring true from your own experiences. Just as the TMO interfered with citing an illegal pass I am sure your local authorities interfere with your illegal passes you make on women - How dare they!!! God forbid that rugby be officiated fairly. You are the right man for the job. Next all blacks coach is here ladies and gentlemen Miss Ben Smith (He/She/They/IT)
221 Go to commentsHuge engine this guy and great to see him back ..The amount of clean outs he does at the ruck are ridiculous !!
3 Go to commentsThe level of desperation in this article is just embarrassing.
221 Go to commentsSome silly trolling in the comments.
9 Go to commentsEverywhere you turn some irish journo is advocating Ireland as the greatest, reasoning that the wc is a 4 year cycle event so, they say wc doesn’t matter it’s the rugby in between that should account for the accolade. If there was no wc then some substance could be gained, however in my opinion the moment that defined Ireland’s fate against the abs was 37 phases of repeated head bashing against a brick wall. If a change in strategy or a tinker with the game plan was executed then things could've been vastly different. And to point a finger the let down was in the hands of the number 10.
68 Go to commentsI have heard it asked if RA is essentially one of the part owners and I suppose therefor should be on the other side of these two parties. If they purchased the rebels and guaranteed them, and are responsible enough they incur Rebels penalties, where is this line drawn? Seems rough to have to pay a penalty for something were your involvement sees you on the side of the conned party, the creditors. If the Rebels directors themselves have given the club their money, 6mil worth right, why aren’t they also listed as sitting with RA and the Tax office? And the legal threat was either way, new Rebels or defunct, I can’t see how RA assume the threat was less likely enough to warrant comment about it in this article. Surely RA ignore that and only worry about whether they can defend it or not, which they have reported as being comfortable with. So in effect wouldn’t it be more accurate to say there is no further legal threat (or worry) in denying the deal. Unless the directors have reneged on that. > Returns of a Japanese team or even Argentinean side, the Jaguares, were said to be on the cards, as were the ideas of standing up brand new teams in Hawaii or even Los Angeles – crazy ideas that seemingly forgot the time zone issues often cited as a turn-off for viewers when the competition contained teams from South Africa. Those timezones are great for SR and are what will probably be needed to unlock its future (cant see it remaining without _atleast _help from Aus), day games here are night games on the West Coast of america, were potential viewers triple, win win. With one of the best and easiest ways to unlock that being to play games or a host a team there. Less good the further across Aus you get though. Jaguares wouldn’t be the same Jaguares, but I still would think it’s better having them than keeping the Rebels. The other options aren’t really realistic 25’ options, no. From reading this authors last article I think if the new board can get the investment they seem to be confident in, you keeping them simply for the amount of money they’ll be investing in the game. Then ditch them later if they’re not good enough without such a high budget. Use them to get Jaguares reintergration stronger, with more key players on board, and have success drive success.
28 Go to commentsYeah, and ours is waaay bigger than yours. Just as you's get a semi…oh hold on that never happens
68 Go to comments