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In the normal course of events, Andy Farrell would have faced his first international series in November with seven Irish games under his belt as head coach.
The Covid-19 situation destroyed the world rugby calendar, forcing the suspension of the Six Nations after three games and the cancellation of the tour to Australia, where it would have had time and space to present new players and systems in two Tests.
However, European quarter-final losses to Leinster and Ulster may allow him more time with his team heading into the final two Six Nations games, against Italy in Dublin on 24 October and away to France a week later.
That precedes the Fall Nations Cup, in which Farrell’s team will face England, Georgia and Wales, and Scotland, Fiji, Italy or France.
Leinster’s loss to the Saracens, and the nature of it, would have served as a reminder, not a necessary one, of Ireland’s losses to heavyweights from the heights of 2018.
Since then, Ireland have fallen in sobering defeats to England (x3), Wales and New Zealand, being completely outclassed in those games.
“We have to do something different because now other teams have the measure of us,” former Ireland player and coach Donal Lenihan told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
“At the end of the Joe Schmidt era, despite all the fantastic things he did, it was so written that opponents knew before the games exactly what was going on, with the exception of maybe a couple of power plays to Set pieces and different attack movements that they had not seen before.
“Generally speaking they knew how that team from Ireland played and they knew how to counter it.
“Therefore, we must continue to evolve and it is fair to say that we have not.
“I ran into Andy Farrell coming out of Aviva on Saturday and we looked at each other and smiled and said ‘Jesus, the scrum.’
“Of course, I had forgotten about your son [Saracens suspended out-half Owen] like playing in that World Cup final [where England were scrummed off the park by South Africa].
“I said we had seen it before, Yokohama.”
Farrell’s reign got off to a solid start with wins at home over Scotland and Wales, but the loss to England at Twickenham led to a family failure.
“We only spoke for a minute or two but I have no doubt that he is fully aware that Ireland has to move on, it has to have a different approach,” Lenihan added.
“I think he showed elements of that in all three games Ireland played. The difficulty for him is that he has returned to fighting fires.
“Ireland are playing six games in a row now and will have very little time with them to impose what element of change they had.” [tried].
“I don’t think the Irish team has been together since the match with Italy was canceled. [in March] with all the Covid problems.
“You can’t expect me to push a button and change Ireland’s focus in two or three training sessions.
“The only time you can make real change is when you go on a summer tour and have time to put the building blocks in place for what’s ahead.”
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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