Farrell to Evaluate Squad’s “Energy Levels” Before Potential Team Adjustments

Ireland’s head coach, Andy Farrell, has stated his intention to evaluate his squad’s “energy levels” prior to making a decision on potential extensive team changes for their upcoming match against Argentina. Ireland is also scheduled to play Fiji and Australia. Farrell’s team experienced their initial home loss since 2021, falling 23-13 to New Zealand in their inaugural Autumn Nations Series fixture at the Aviva Stadium on Friday. With Argentina set to visit Dublin this Friday, followed by matches against Fiji and Australia, Farrell acknowledged that he has numerous factors to weigh before adjusting his team lineup. He commented, “It’s a tough month, four back-to-back games on the trot so we will see what the energy levels are like.” He further added, “A lot of guys put a good shift in considering their training time never mind game time, so we’ll see how bodies are when we’re back in and see what the feeling is like.” Ireland concluded the match against New Zealand having conceded 13 penalties, missed 30 tackles, and committed 21 handling errors. Despite having secured victories in their previous 19 home fixtures and suffering only one defeat at Aviva Stadium since the first round of the 2019 Six Nations, the team’s indiscipline and mistakes led to a justifiable loss. Farrell declined to attribute his team’s deficiencies to Ireland’s limited match schedule. Ireland had not competed since their summer tour of South Africa, whereas New Zealand had participated in eight matches during the same period leading up to the game. Farrell further stated, “We’ve always prided ourselves on getting up to speed and being as good as we possibly can be first game up because that is the cards we are dealt with.” He continued, “It doesn’t matter if you have had three training sessions and 12 minutes of games or seven consecutive games and 50 training sessions, you try to be your best and we weren’t.” Despite a subpar performance in the first half, Farrell clarified that he maintained a calm demeanor at half-time, rather than expressing anger, in an effort to assist Ireland in analyzing their errors. “I didn’t [shout], you pick and choose your moments [to do so], there were a few things to fix,” Farrell elaborated. “Getting those points over of how to get back in the game and give them an understanding of why they were feeling like they were important, and we came out of the blocks in a different manner.” Farrell additionally acknowledged that Ireland must eliminate handling errors to resume winning, particularly against Argentina, a team that decisively defeated Italy on Saturday evening. He remarked, “We had a bit of overplaying too much – in those conditions the quality of pass wasn’t where it needed to be to be accurate.”