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'We've been very good at winning... we've got to be good at losing'
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has no doubts his side will bounce back from their Guinness Six Nations loss to England at Twickenham, saying “we’ve got a Championship to win” against Scotland next weekend at the Aviva Stadium.
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England ended Ireland’s pursuit of back-to-back Grand Slams with an inspired performance in London, beating the Championship leaders 23-22 courtesy of a last-play drop goal from Marcus Smith.
Farrell was full of praise for Steve Borthwick’s side after the match, and was quick to emphasise that the hosts deserved their victory.
“To cut a long story short,” he said. “I thought England deserved it with the pressure they had and created, so congratulations to them.
“I thought they were super tonight. They were physical, they were challenging on the gain line and played a nice brand of rugby as well.”
Match Summary 
1
Penalty Goals
4
3
Tries
2
1
Conversions
0
1
Drop Goals
0
114
Carries
93
8
Line Breaks
2
13
Turnovers Lost
9
4
Turnovers Won
8
Despite the defeat, Ireland remain firm favourites to win the Championship as they enter the final weekend with a four point lead at the top of the table.
Farrell commended the way England bounced back from their Calcutta Cup loss to Scotland in round three, and explained how he hoped the defeat at Twickenham will “concentrate the mind” of his squad as they chase the title next week.
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He said: “Look at the quality of the players that they’ve got. Certainly when you’re coming off the back of a defeat, it tends to concentrate the mind a little mind and hopefully it does for us next week.
“We’ve got to dust ourselves down tomorrow, I’ll make sure we turn up with a smile on our face because we’ve got a Championship to win next weekend.
“We said from the beginning that we’d like to be in with a chance to win the competition on the last day and here we are.
“The lads are realists, we’ll learn our lessons quickly and it’s not a problem at all about getting the lads back on track for next week.
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“Six Nations are unbelievably difficult to come by. To win them you tend to have a lot of ups and downs and you look at the results today and what’s happened throughout this competition, that’s why we love it so much. I suppose for the neutral, that was a fantastic game to watch, we were on the wrong side of it but there will be absolutely no problem whatsoever getting back to work next week for what is a super important week for Irish rugby.
“We want to win everything, we’ve never shied away from that. Today was one of those games that we wanted to win, but that’s life. You dust yourselves down, we’ve been very good at winning and moving onto the next one, we’ve got to be very good at losing as well- making sure that we congratulate England tonight.
“We said from the beginning that we’d like to be in with a chance to win the competition on the last day and here we are.
Ireland’s captain Peter O’Mahony joined Farrell in praising a “clinical” England side, while ruing his side’s discipline at the same time.
“Our discipline was a big in for them,” the flanker said. “I thought they were clinical around messing up our breakdown. We fought hard to get consistency in our phase play.
“I thought we striked well off set pieces but we didn’t get into a lot of our phase play.
“It was a pressure match, a pressure environment and they’re a quality side and they showed that in spades tonight in the way they defended and were clinical in attack.
Comments on RugbyPass
Men should show strength and be mean, but they should be able to show emotion to those close yo them in certain times, birth of your child, death of family, proud moment. This article is stupid
4 Go to commentsWhat a weak article…absolute drivel and clickbait, well done. Will stick to rugby365 thanks
4 Go to commentsHonest, discipline, humility… Priceless.
2 Go to commentsSo many excuses. No mention of the SA number 2 being taken out illegally in the 2nd minute. That act of foul play had a massive impact on the SA game. Face it, NZ play pretty dirty very regularly, and it’s only since 2016 they’ve been held to higher officiating standards via stricter officiating and TMO reviews. They deserved to have a man down. Sorry. Fix the yellow and red cards and NZ will win more RWCs. Plus, there WAS a knock on invalidating the one try, so it was NOT a try. Period. Here’s a Kleenex…
207 Go to commentsOverheard conversation between NZ and SA rugby fans everywhere: We’re the greatest! No! we’re the greatest! We’re the greatest! No we’re the greatest! Ireland are arrogant! True but they beat you! We’re the greatest! No! we’re the greatest! Etc. etc, etc.
20 Go to commentsTypical crap Aussie weather
11 Go to comments“If they’d have beaten England, I still feel we would have been talking ‘is this the best team ever,’ ‘is this the best team that’s ever played in the Six Nations'” he said. “I still think they’re not quite that good. I actually don’t think they’re that good.” So Trimble is saying he doesn’t think this is the best 6N team of all time. He is silent on if it is the best Irish team of all time. Can’t disagree with him. Just another misrepresentative clickbait headline from the guys at RP.
20 Go to commentsWow, do we really still have to listen to all the excuses and “unfairness” of it all. Even blaming the bounce of an egg shaped ball for the loss. But the article is about context, so what about the Springboks having to play the other 5 teams in the top 6 and still beating a comparatively rested AB team on a very empty tank.
207 Go to comments“Teams would generally have three coaches below their head honcho; attack coach, defence coach, forwards coach” do they? I’m not sure what the NZ set up is tbh, but the other 4 sides top 5 sides all have very different structures to the one outlined in the article! As well as attack, defence, and forwards coaches, SA, Ireland, and France also have specialist scrum coaches. England have a specialist scrum coach too, but arguably don’t have a forwards coach, with that role taken on by Borthwick. SA also have a backs coach in addition to defence and attack, and Ireland and England have fitness coaches, with England also having two skills coaches.
2 Go to commentsWorst article I've read in a while. Trying to disguise a backhand slap as a compliment. The whole article is a bit weird and negative. I think South African men are emotional in general… think Clad le Clos’s father 2012 London Olympics.
4 Go to commentsIreland are going to win the world cup.
20 Go to commentsIt was the strangest result ever. Etzebeth should've been yellow card for his cynical retiring move and a penalty try. Birth second half tries by the Allblacks were fantastic and the TMO operating outside the law to rule out the first try was egregious. Yes, the boks got the win but it was through some bizarre officiating that allowed them to sneak home against 14 men that dominated them. The quieter Bok supporters know and acknowledge the Allblacks were the better and dominant side. Justifying the win because they beat a pre world cup Allblacks selection is silly.
207 Go to commentsA very English thing to do hey Courtney, blerrie kant
4 Go to commentsIt sounds like Andrew is trying to convince himself or has just lost all perspective. The team did look jaded for the last couple of games of the six nations but a few things were wrong there. Italy tackled their hearts out and made Ireland work hard for every try. Outsmarted by Scotland? Huh? Ireland got held up over the line about 4 times. Scotland did nothing on attack the whole game other than one breakaway near the end. A recharge and reset is needed which they hopefully will have had before the SA your.
20 Go to commentsIncluding SA and Argie teams was great for the quality of rugby, but middle of the night games and player travel/ jet lag make that unworkable. I think that SA in Europe and Argie building an American league with USA, Canada etc would be better long term. If Oz can't sustain Rebels then next cab off the rank should be a Japanese team. Keep regional comps to time zones, both club and test rugby. Then existing test windows for test tours plus RWC.
6 Go to commentsMisogynists have feelings too!
4 Go to commentsCrowd sizes of the URC v the Premiership must be a big factor.
1 Go to commentsWell you’ve made a proper tit of yourself, haven’t you! 😂
173 Go to commentsBen it's beyond their comprehension-
207 Go to commentsThanks Sam. Interesting read. Harder or easier for Parling to come into a completely new setup where performance was abysmal last time out? I’d suggest easier to be better but, as you suggest, will be a lot to do with how much latitude he’s granted. Hopefully all he needs. With hybrids like Holloway, Hannigan, Swinton and Leota as options at 6 we have the basics for a strong lineout. BPA returning means we have good options at 2 also with Faessler, Porecki and Uelese, although Jordan is a scrumming beast rather than a dart thrower. I’m typically a pessimist or realist but that’s never applied to the Wallabies
2 Go to comments