He’s not normal really, and proof, were it needed, that Andy Farrell marches to a different beat – or at the very least is a throwback to old school times – came amid his reaction to Ireland’s epic, series-levelling second Test win in Durban on Saturday.
In the immediate aftermath of that dramatic 25-24 victory the thought occurred that it was a good time to “get out of Dodge”, to call time on a 55-week season rather than face the wounded Springboks for a third time in a series decider next weekend.
After all, rewind to 2012 and Ireland’s 13-month, World Cup season ended with a three-Test series in New Zealand. Few remember that Ireland came within a questionable scrum interpretation by Nigel Owens of winning the second Test in Christchurch, primarily because a week later in Hamilton they were beaten 60-0.
A dozen years on Ireland, England and Wales all kept their end-of-season tours to two rather than three Tests. It seemed prudent.
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But even in the fallout of last Saturday’s win, Farrell maintained: “I don’t get the two. I don’t get it, like. I’m a traditionalist, I love the three. I love the three and plus a few more.”
Not for the first time in his tenure as Ireland head coach – witness how he has previously embraced all manner of chaos and disruption – you wondered if Farrell is simply a masochist at heart. But, of course, the way he sees it, a 55-week season and tiredness doesn’t come into it. “Playing for Ireland,” he reasoned, “has got to be bigger than that.”
And in this, like much else, no matter whether on the sidelines or, like the demoted Peter O’Mahony, on the bench, all the squad buy into it.
Yet not only has it been a 55-week season, but the players all landed in South Africa after seriously anticlimactic provincial seasons.
Connacht, whose season ended months ago, never even made the URC play-offs or next season’s Champions Cup. Ulster barely did so before being soundly beaten by Leinster, who themselves were devoured by the Bulls in Pretoria while Munster let slip the chance of a home final. This was a group of players in serious need of rejuvenation.
What’s more, in the post-World Cup, post-Johnny Sexton era, Hugo Keenan, Bundee Aki, Jamison Gibson-Park and Dan Sheehan were among the seven or eight automatic selections. Throw in Mack Hansen and Jack Conan and Ireland were effectively missing a third of their frontline team.
Furthermore, in the supreme compliment, Rassie Erasmus had targeted winning these two Tests against Ireland as much as any of the Springboks’ forthcoming Rugby Championship games. Cue a distinctly non-experimental side, the most experienced in Boks’ history and bulk suppliers to their back-to-back World Cup triumphs.
This game also took place in the Thomond Park of South African rugby where the Boks hadn’t been beaten in eight years.
Even so, there had been enough in Ireland’s first Test performance to foster a belief that returning to sea level, with a more favourable bounce of the ball and a fairer crack of the whip from the officials, might give hope.
As in the 19-16 home win in November 2022 and the 13-8 pool win in Paris over the world champions, this Irish team again gave the lie to that lazy narrative that they cannot withstand the physical heat when encountering the bigger teams, or cannot win tight matches.
Over the last two Tests, Caelan Doris has reached Ardie Savea/world Player of the Year territory. One sometimes has the impression that Doris doesn’t entirely believe he’s ready for this captaincy thing, that he’d quite like to stay in the trenches. As if to boost him, Farrell publicly singles Doris out more when sitting alongside him at press conferences. The coach did so again on Saturday in praising the player’s leader-from-the-front example.
Never before have we heard a Springboks’ captain admit in the aftermath of a Test against Ireland, as Siya Kolisi did, the words: “They dominated us physically”. They also kept probing flat to the gain line, and Conor Murray’s finish from Jamie Osborne ghosting on to Jack Crowley’s inside pass before Robbie Henshaw’s sharp transfer was fully merited.
Having done the same a week previously, this was Murray’s 18th try in 115 Tests for Ireland. Maybe a few more will now appreciate what a consummate pro and player he has been and remains. Heaven knows where Munster and Irish rugby would have been without the 35-year-old scrumhalf over the last 13 seasons, and thankfully he’s not done yet.
Ireland would not have been flattered by a 20-6 rather than 16-3 interval lead. Granted, that was partly their own doing but even as South Africa’s scrum and Handre Pollard turned the screw they kept flinging themselves into carries and tackles, and defying the Boks’ lineout and maul.
Most of all, and typical of this team (for it’s been true in rare defeats as well) they never stopped believing, not even with the tide against them or with a relative rookie at outhalf. But Ciaran Frawley’s endgame management and execution of those drop goals belied his lack of big-game experience at number ten.
The one sour note was the Springboks’ claims of obstruction and/or a trip when Cheslin Kolbe slid dramatically to ground as Frawley landed the match-winning drop goal. Only Kolbe knows whether he dived or slipped, but it sure as hell looked like the former. Thankfully Doris and Finlay Bealham never budged an inch as Kolbe went to ground and neither did the officials.
So, no less than the spectacular success of Osborne at fullback, in choosing Frawley as the backup outhalf, yet again Farrell’s judgment has been emphatically vindicated. While it’s a week sooner than Farrell would like, the squad return with their depth chart enhanced, their inner-belief swollen further, those on the outside itching to return and having confirmed that they are still one of the top two sides in the world. And still Ireland’s best rugby side ever.
Farrell empowers his players and this squad’s culture also comes from people like Sexton, Peter O’Mahony and Paul O’Connell. But arguably a coach’s most important characteristic is authenticity, and this squad buy into what Farrell asks of them because he is, above all else, authentic.
An original is hard to find but easy to recognise.
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