Les Bleus sliced through Ireland at times and while Farrell’s charges showed plenty of heart in the second period to stay in the game, the damage was done
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell bemoaned a lack of ‘fight and intent’ in Ireland’s first-half display that saw them trail 22-0 to France at the break in Thursday night’s Six Nations opener.
Les Bleus sliced through Ireland at times and while Farrell’s charges showed plenty of heart in the second period to stay in the game, the damage was done long before the half-time whistle was even blown.
“France were playing a different game to us in the first-half. I suppose, you make your own luck in this game and rightly so with the way that they went about their business,” Farrell told Virgin Media after the game.
“They created a few chances off the back of scraps on the floor or high balls and stuff like that, but that’s the game. You’ve got to show a bit of fight and intent, and we lacked a bit of that in the first-half which is very disappointing.”
On Ireland’s missed tackle tally of 19 in the first-half, Farrell said “It is (disappointing) because it is the intention isn’t it? It was wet weather rugby, but getting through tackles and earning the right to offload. It weren’t risky play that they were doing, it was earning the right to offload because they were winning the contacts.
“But congratulations to France, as I said, they were on a different level at times there. A bit of a response – more than a bit of a response in the second-half, but worthy winners, that’s for sure.”
On his substitutions, Farrell said “They did (have an impact), but it wasn’t rocket science. It was just to have a bit of go-forward, a bit of grunt in the way that they went about their business, and we got a couple of tries off the back of that, and it’s a pity that we couldn’t get a few more in the end because every point matters in this competition as we know.”
As for the week ahead, Farrell is anticipating an interesting few days on the training field before next Saturday’s clash with Italy at the Aviva Stadium.
“Hell of a lot of work to do, and we need to be honest about this because you don’t get a result like this and not take the learnings from it, so it has to stand for something.”
Former Ireland star Conor Murray believes Ireland will stick to their kicking gameplan for the remainder of the Six Nations.
Farrell’s men opted for a box-kicking barrage on Thursday night at a soaking wet Stade de France, and while many of the kicks led to proper contests, Ireland failed to secure enough ball to put a dent in an awesome French performance, particularly in the first-half.
Speaking on Virgin Media after the game, ex Ireland star Shane Horgan referenced how Ireland were outfought and outscrapped for those loose balls, bemoaning Ireland’s inability to get the ball back from 50/50 contests.
“They didn’t do it, and they couldn’t win the game as a result,” said Horgan.
Taking up on Horgan’s point, Murray – the box-kick king for many years in a green shirt – agreed with his former teammate, but spoke about how luck plays a huge role in this tactic.
“There’s a certain element of luck to it as well. If you look at all the kicks, the majority of them were on the ball and accurate from Jamison/Sam, those contestable balls in the air, and you know the boys are working on it hard.
“It’s that scrap – when the ball breaks, who wins that? It’s a 50/50 lottery and some days it just goes against you.
“I find it hard to find the answer to that if the kicks are on the money.
“They’ll stick with it and hope they win scraps, you know, the winger contesting off the kicking and then it’s the boys in behind who are probably more important in winning possession back.”