What Andy Farrell got ‘completely wrong’ and lost Six Nations race, Ireland boss tackles Saracens links and Wales captain’s bold statement
Ireland boss Andy Farrell and an inset of Wales captain Dewi Lake.
Andy Farrell hopes to hold talks over his future in due course, while he comes under fire for his selections as we recap the top stories ahead of Ireland v Wales.
Eddie O’Sullivan: Where Farrell went wrong
Former Ireland head coach Eddie O’Sullivan believes that Farrell needs to put his hand up and cop the blame for his team falling off the Six Nations title race.
Ireland is mathematically still in the race for the Championship but they would need several results to fall in their favour, including both Scotland and England beating high-flyers France.
In his opinion, a Grand Slam was always going to be a stretch but Farrell’s decision to select Sam Prendergast at number ten for the opening games against Les Bleus and Italy cost Ireland any chance of winning the Championship.
“There’s no doubt Farrell got this wrong,” O’Sullivan said on the Indo Sport podcast.
“I don’t think anybody wants to ask the most obvious question to Farrell of ‘you must believe at this point you got your selections for the first two games wrong’… By any metric, as a coach, I would say he got that completely wrong, those first two selections.
“It goes back to the fact that in his head, and this is a thing he is entitled to do because he’s the head coach and has to make the tough calls, he really believed that Sam was the man. There was grounds for that.
“We were all on the same boat really and thought Sam is a special talent and will come right. But it didn’t work out, so sometimes you’ve got to put up your hand and say ‘I got that wrong’.”
He added: “I don’t know if anyone is asking that directly in a press conference, but it’s an obvious question to me. We probably wouldn’t have won the Grand Slam with Jack starting in Paris, but we might still be in the championship.”
Whilst Ireland won their round two and three fixtures after falling to a defeat to France in the opening game but crucially, they were unable to claim a try bonus against Italy, when Prendergast started, and a losing point against Les Bleus.
Those two league points would place them on the same tally as Scotland in the standings and just four points adrift of leaders France.
Saracens’ links
While the questions around the fly-half selection haven’t been properly posed to Farrell, the head coach has been pressed about his future beyond the Rugby World Cup amid rumours that he could return to Saracens.
He expects to hold talks about his future in Ireland in the ‘near future’ after the PREM club dismissed the rumours in a statement where they branded them as ‘disrespectful’.
“I mean, you’d expect me to say that I’m here to just concentrate on the Six Nations and what will be, will be in the future,” he told reporters.
“But I suppose it’s people (putting) two and two together and making five with the connections: good friends with the owner, Owen’s there, all of that.
“You can see why that’s happened but I suppose we’ll sit down and have discussions with the IRFU in the near future, that’s for sure.”
Saracens extend post-Six Nations invite to Andy Farrell after slamming ‘disrespectful’ rumours
Lake’s bold statement of intent
Meanwhile, Wales won’t be making up the numbers when they collide with the far more fancied Irish on Friday evening in Dublin.
Captain Dewi Lake stated as much as he says Wales will be out to beat the Irish and believes that they can do so after giving Scotland a mighty scare in round three.
Wales have a rich history in the Six Nations but have fallen on harsher times as they have lost their last 13 straight matches in the Championship.
“We believe we can compete against Ireland because we think we’re good enough, I don’t think we would be here if we didn’t think that,” said the hooker.
“We believe that if we play our game and we get our things right, we can beat Ireland.”
The skipper believes that Wales have turned the corner with their performance against Scotland.
“I have said from game one there has been belief in the squad in this whole campaign,” said Lake.
“We showed our best against Scotland and everything kind of clicked for us.
“We put a bit more effort in defence in the week and you probably saw that, the mentality to go and defend.”
He added: “That Scotland game is only going to give us more confidence, so we can go another level this weekend.”
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Two crucial figures
Wales legend Jonathan Davies believes that two men will be crucial to Steve Tandy’s team’s efforts against the Irish if they are to rise to the occasion.
Namely, flanker James Botham and fly-half Dan Edwards. The duo have both been added to the starting XV after Botham shone off the bench following Taine Plumtree’s injury against Scotland, while Edwards takes over from the also injured Sam Costelow in the number 10 jumper.
“Wales have got to try to slow down the ball somehow or it is going to be a very, very long night at the office,” the legendary back affectively known as Jiffy wrote in his Wales Online column.
“James Botham will have a big role to play in slowing down Ireland’s ball. He made a few positive turnovers against Scotland.”
He added: “It will be a big night for Dan Edwards who gets an opportunity to bounce back after being dropped for the Scotland game.
“Edwards has got to kick accurately and find a way of getting the attack firing.
“It is very difficult because at the moment I don’t really understand what the 10-12 axis is trying to do.
“Do we want our number 12 to be a ball player, or do we want him to carry the ball over the gain-line?”
