Farrell: All Blacks Deserved to End Ireland’s Home Winning Streak

Ireland’s head coach, Andy Farrell, stated there were “no excuses” following his team’s 23-13 loss to New Zealand, marking only the second home defeat during his tenure. This defeat ended Ireland’s run of 19 consecutive home victories and was only their second loss at Aviva Stadium since the opening round of the 2019 Six Nations. The team’s indiscipline and errors were identified as key factors in their deserved loss. In their initial match since a drawn series against South Africa in July, Ireland’s offensive performance was notably subdued. Farrell commented, “There’s no excuses for us. You can talk about all sorts of stuff, rustiness, game-time – there’s no excuse. It is what it is.” He added, “The opposition, long story short, deserved to win.” Farrell also mentioned, “I thought we’d prepped well, trained well, everyone was excited about the game.” “We didn’t manage to put our game out on the field. Obviously the opposition have a big say in that,” he concluded. The All Blacks had emphasized discipline as a key area of focus, having faced refereeing issues in their victory over England six days earlier. They ultimately secured a 13-5 advantage in the penalty count, even with Jordie Barrett receiving a yellow card just before half-time. Regarding the penalty count, Farrell further stated, “I mean as far as the penalty count, I actually thought the game was stop-start. It was a bit scrappy, because of the weather that came down.” He continued, “It was a slow enough game at times. We needed to be in charge of looking after our own energy and we didn’t do that well enough.” As this defeat marks the first of four scheduled autumn matches, Farrell indicated that Ireland must swiftly overcome the unfamiliar sensation of a home loss, with upcoming fixtures against Argentina, Fiji, and Australia still scheduled for this month. “It’s a funny old feeling. We don’t tend to have it too much in that dressing room,” Farrell remarked. He added, “It is what it is, that’s life. Congratulations to New Zealand. We move on. We have to.” Farrell emphasized, “We have to find solutions as soon as we possibly can because we’ve got a hungry side in Argentina [next week] who are playing some really good rugby at this moment in time.” “We need to get back on the horse and start it all over again,” he concluded. All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson expressed his satisfaction with his team’s victory, which he described as a “classic Test match,” marking their second win in two matches on their northern hemisphere tour. “I’m really pleased,” Robertson stated. He continued, “Really pleased we showed so much courage and care with both sides of the ball. It was a classic Test match. The boys performed after half-time and we’re pretty pleased and stoked to get a result like that.” Despite Ireland narrowing the score to 9-6 at half-time and New Zealand playing with 14 men for nearly the entire first ten minutes of the second half following Jordie Barrett’s yellow card, Robertson confirmed that the half-time message remained composed. “Keep doing what we were doing,” he recounted telling his team. Robertson elaborated, “We wanted to build some pressure and trust our skillsets. The guys who came off the bench made an impact and it was good to being some experienced players on.”