Ireland coach Andy Farrell: 'I’m jealous of that'

It’s amusing the difference a few metres can make. Saturday’s night post-game set-piece had been staged in a top table media briefing room that was so jammed you couldn’t swing a cat. It was claustrophobic.

South Africa first, Ireland next and so blink-and-you-missed-it was the swift change in the personnel seated in the two chairs that the Irish were literally up and running with their bit about 30 seconds after Rassie Erasmus and Siya Kolisli had exited.

When it finished, Andy Farrell was directed into a vast Kings Park boardroom next door where the long long-table set up now dwarfed the water bottle-holding coach and the half-dozen journalists invited along for an embargoed eight-minute, nine-question debrief.

“We could have a good dinner in here,” quipped the Ireland head coach to laughter from his audience. He was dead right; the extremely roomy difference in set-up was akin to night and day. Just like the end-game that had just unfolded out on the pitch.

One minute, Farrell’s team were set to lose the match and also the series 0-2. Next, super sub Ciaran Frawley does his drop goal thing, Ireland win 25-24, the series is drawn and the tourists exit with the full respect of their hosts. No more Rassie “in your head”, just multiple expressions of “well done” and so on.

Rather than cherry-pick what Farrell had to say at the end of a 13-month season that involved a quarter-final at the Rugby World Cup, a second successive Six Nations title and now a drawn Test series away to South Africa, here is the full transcript of the Ireland head coach’s debrief after his team’s 12^th win in their 15-match 2023/24 season:

Media: You said from the outset the stage of the season didn’t matter, that the squad was fresh coming into it but…   

Farrell (jumping in before the question gets finished): I know you guys were saying obviously because of stuff that went on at the end of the season, the makeshift of all that (the injuries and absences), but it can’t belie that playing for Ireland. If it is, what are we doing like? It’s got to be bigger than that. So when they come together that’s the vibe I get anyway. I never get a vibe of they’re turning up to just muck in and see how they go because they have been playing a 13-month season. Like, they don’t see it like that. They go again. They go again and keep on playing ’cause that is how much it means to them.

Media: Would you fancy a third Test against them?

Farrell: I don’t get the two, I don’t get it, like. I’m a traditionalist, I love the three. I love the three and plus a few more. I hear that New Zealand and South Africa and Argentina are going to balance it out every four years or so, is that right? (New Zealand and South Africa are going to do it). I’m jealous of that. Like, that’s proper touring and that’s the traditions of the game. So I’m jealous of that.

Media: You and your players have been through an awful lot this season, good, bad, heartbreak, elation. To sign off with that as your final act and set the tone for when you come back in November, that’s exactly what you want.

Farrell: It is because you whet the appetite of not just the lads who didn’t play here but the lads who are injured, the lads who have got ambition to get into this squad because that is what it’s all about. It’s about showing them how special it is to put the green jersey on and if we didn’t have that, then we’d stop progressing.

Media: In that light, how big is it that Ciaran has shown he wants to be the main man? Even Jamie (Osborne). I’m sure Hugo (Keenan) is watching and thinking, ‘I have to get past him now’.

Farrell: That’s the best part about it all, isn’t it? I mean, Jamison (Gibson-Park) for me if there wasn’t a No9 in France, I mean he is world-class, world-class like you know and so is Hugo and so are other players that we miss who are unbelievably important to the squad, the dynamics of the squad. But the strength of the group is the group and that’s genuinely how it is and how it should be.

Media: Even sending on Ciaran and Caolin (Blade) at the time, why did you have so much faith in those two guys?

Farrell: Because of how I have seen them train and they deserve it. They deserve the responsibility to show what they can do. Bladey has always been a guy that’s come in in the middle of a competition and had a week to get up to speed and his thought process has been in overdrive. Now he has been in the squad from the start he has been a lot more comfortable and Frawls exactly the same. He’s been a bit-part at 10, bit-part at 15, filling in at 12 etc. He deserved the chance to slot in at 10. There was a bit of Jack (Crowley) in him actually from the crossfield kick that went out on the full, he could have crumbled there but his strength today was his mental ability to dare to dream.

Media: When you were 16-6 it could have been slightly more at half-time. Death by a thousand cuts with penalty, penalty, penalty. Were you very pleased with how the team found a way to win the game?   

Farrell: Yeah and when we look at it now, the 16-6 is the reason we won the game. If it was probably a penalty less in the first half them maybe we’d have lost the game but it shows how good the first half was. When it was on their line there was two or three opportunities where we should have took a try and came away with three points, so we left some points out there. But yeah, to stay on it, to have the character to play the play from the scrum, put the ball through and tackle into touch was there’s scenarios that you go through the whole time in training, you’re always trying to give them scenarios, three points down five minutes to go, two points down one minute to go, all that type of stuff. So it’s nice when they are able to stay composed enough to have the balls the balls to go for it.

Media: Was the drop goal part of the scenarios you did? Did they actually do the drop goal from 40 metres in training?

Farrell: Yeah. You’re actually thinking go one more, get us a little closer but he went early, he went early to give himself room. He knows that distance is not a problem. It was ugly the second one, the first one was beautiful but we’ll take it, we’ll take it.

Media: Andy, you’re keeping a straight face here. Is there any emotion going on, what was it like when that kick went through and the final whistle sounded?  

Farrell: Well look, I actually feel for South Africa as well because I have no doubt in their box that they thought they had won it. It’s hard to take when it’s so close and it’s over like that. So you can imagine the elation in our box. Look, it’s a one-one series draw if you call it a series but it’s a win away from home in our last game which we will be delighted with.

Media: You have player (Frawley) who doesn’t get a lot of game time at 10, you’ve a 15 (Osborne) who doesn’t get a lot of time at 15, you have Tom O’Toole in the squad who doesn’t get a lot of time at loosehead, between now and November are the things that you would like to see back at the provinces things that you can influence, that David (Humphreys) can influence to try and set Ireland up?

Farrell: I have got a great relationship with all the coaches but it has to be this way that people, provinces are allowed to have their own say because they have to manage a full season. It’s difficult. No bit ever us working against each other in Irish rugby, even if we disagree on a few things everyone is always trying to work to what’s best for Irish rugby. And that will continue. Like for example is somebody a six or is he a four or five? You have got to go after both really because different permutations throughout the season, injuries etc. You can’t help all that so you’re try and work on it together and the chats behind the scene just because a player plays in one position, I constantly phone up and say do you think you could do this or whatever his skill set, do you agree with. You know, it’s all those type conversations. It never marries up perfectly because of the situation regarding injuries and squad rotation etc.