Andy Farrell: Ireland tour of New Zealand ‘the perfect opportunity’ to gauge progress

Stan Wilson

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is looking forward to his team’s summer tour of New Zealand and believes it to be the perfect opportunity to gauge their progress after winning the Triple Crown.

The red-hot Irish ended their Six Nations campaign with silverware following their 26-5 bonus-point win over Scotland and narrowly missed out on the title due to France‘s Grand Slam.

Farrell‘s squad have lost just one of their last 13 matches and have received heaps of praise for their recent outings, including their astounding home win over the All Blacks.

Ireland have never won away to New Zealand and will face a stern examination of their credentials during three Tests in July, with the three-time world champions out to avenge November’s 29-20 loss at the Aviva Stadium.

Priceless opportunity

“It’s massive,” Farrell said of the upcoming tour. “It’s the perfect opportunity that the group need.

“We’ve talked time and time again about the lack of touring. It’s priceless.

“It looks like we’re able to take a slightly bigger group, which is great because we’ve probably had 37 lads in camp and probably five or six of them have gone away injured.

“There’s people that’s already had a sniff; some people that’s not had a game but we want to see them under pressure.

“I suppose going to New Zealand there will be no pressure like it, so it’s the perfect opportunity for us to find out more about ourselves.”

Ireland scored the most tries (24) and conceded the fewest (four) in the Six Nations but fell agonisingly short of championship glory due to their narrow round-two loss in Paris.

Scores from Dan Sheehan, Cian Healy, Josh Van Der Flier and replacement Conor Murray earned victory over the Scots – their fourth bonus-point success of the tournament and third in succession.

While Ireland’s high-tempo, expansive style of play has regularly grabbed the headlines, Farrell has been equally heartened by his side’s composure and willingness to scrap for success as they build towards next year’s World Cup.

“We have shown that we can play some really good rugby and scored quite a few tries,” said the head coach.

“But we have also shown in the last few weeks that we have got some grit and some nerve to stay calm and take the game right to the death.

“We dusted ourselves off after the disappointment in Paris and got back on the horse and that’s all you can ask for. Three bonus-point wins on the trot is some achievement.”

Scotland enjoyed decent periods of possession in the hosts’ 22 but were often rendered toothless by stubborn defending.

That determination was epitomised in the second period when, with the score 14-5, visiting captain Stuart Hogg was denied a certain try by a heroic Hugo Keenan tackle as Scotland centre Sam Johnson awaited an offload.

“There are some momentum changes and you know when things are going to go your way when you’ve got players like that pulling special moments out of the bag,” Farrell said of Keenan’s crucial intervention.

“If you look at the second half, those special players lift everyone.

“It’s part of the game that you guys (media) won’t judge as much as us but we were unbelievable in defending our own line.

“They had plenty of opportunities to score some tries and we hung unbelievably tough.”

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