Porter Sees Ireland Improving Cohesion for Fiji Match

Ireland’s prop, Andrew Porter, believes the team displayed indications of advancement during their 22-19 victory against Argentina on Friday, despite not having reached their peak performance this autumn. Following a ten-point defeat at home to the All Blacks at the start of their autumn series, Andy Farrell’s squad secured three tries in the first half and saw an additional one disallowed by the TMO when playing the Pumas, yet they did not score any points in the second half. Loose-head prop Porter stated, “It felt like we were gelling better as a team, our attack was flowing a bit better,” adding, “We’ll take huge confidence from that.” He further elaborated, “That’s a big thing at this level, that cohesion, the flow that you get into. Especially in the first half it felt like our attack was going a bit better, so we’ll take that.” Ireland entered the autumn period without having competed since their tied series against South Africa in July, whereas both of their adversaries to date had participated in six Tests within the Rugby Championship over the summer months. Prior to their match against Fiji, scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Aviva Stadium, Andy Farrell commented that his team appeared “little bit shy of that type of intensity” demanded by Test rugby. Porter remarked, “It’s tough,” and continued, “Obviously we’re not together all that long in camp. It’s all well and good being able to train together but it’s different going out into a game. “It’s not really an excuse at this level.””