Frustrated Andy Farrell urges Ireland to 'love defending' against Italy after opening Six Nations defeat
Defeat against Italy would spell the end of Ireland's hopes of winning the championship
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Defence coach Andy Farrell wants Ireland to “love defending” against Italy, after their opening Six Nations weekend defeat to Scotland on Saturday.
Ireland were poor in the first half as they went in at the break 22-5 down to their Celtic rivals, before overturning the deficit to take a 22-21 lead.
Greig Laidlaw’s two decisive penalties won it for Scotland, but it was clear to Farrell, who will again be Warren Gatland’s defence coach for the British and Irish Lions, where the game was lost for Joe Schmidt’s men.
"Every single time we get an opportunity to defend, we should love it, and we didn't," Farrell said.
"So our mood was affected, our appetite was affected a little bit, and we got it back in the second half.
"We'll work on the reasons why. I'm more concerned about the mood at the time, of our lack of want to get back in the line and enjoy our defence.
"Our mood was completely different in the first half compared to what it was in the second half and I think we let things a little bit affect us and we shouldn't do that defensively. We should love defending."
Such was the difference in the two performances Ireland put in either side of half time, that Scotland head coach Vern Cotter asserted that Farrell had changed up Ireland’s defensive approach – something that frustrated the former dual-code international, who said it was the mood, not the tactics, which had changed.
"I think the upsetting thing for myself after the game was that Vern Cotter came up to me - and Scotland, all credit to them, I thought they played really well, especially in the first half - but he said, 'Jeez, you changed your defence in the second half, didn't you?'.
"And we didn't. We didn't. So now you can understand why I'm talking about the mood."
Up next for the Irish is the must-win game against Italy in Rome, with defeat almost certainly ending Schmidt’s men’s dreams of winning the championship.
Italy are led by former Ireland full-back Conor O’Shea, who is looking to engineer a new fighting spirit amongst the Azzurri, having led against Wales at half time on Sunday, before falling to a 33-7 defeat.
"We need to enjoy our defence this weekend against Italy, we need to get the ball back because if we don't, the Italians are going to be hard work for us," said Farrell, who is expecting another tough encounter.
"It's a tough old match over there and we've seen plenty of games where teams have come unstuck so you have to be at your best in this championship against absolutely everyone.
"We know what the Italians can do, we know what they've done against South Africa and we know that they believe that if they get a sniff... so we've got to apply ourselves on the Italians and we need to get that appetite consistently higher this weekend."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments