By the time Andy Farrell was sitting down to his brekkie last Sunday morning the review of Ireland’s autumn had been bouncing around his head for hours.
Effectively it’s four mini reviews put into the tumble dryer to see what comes out. Well before the cycle was complete Ireland’s head coach had a headache coming on and a line that would not change: Simon, you’ll have your hands full for the Six Nations.
Farrell may be on Lions duty now, with Simon Easterby keeping the Irish seat warm until next autumn, but it’s not like the boss will be able to compartmentalise without a change in his heartbeat. A placid man under pressure – a very useful way to be – you could sense Farrell’s unease over the past few weeks at the way the fabric was losing threads.
So the tightness required to turn a line break into points was missing. The straightforward goal of catch and pass was getting clouded by something not readily identifiable. And the mood was unsettled: grown men looking at themselves knowing they should be doing better than this.
Rewind to the summer and they were breaking new ground by sharing a series in South Africa. The man of the moment back then was Ciarán Frawley. Unloved as a 10 at Leinster where he had only started two of 22 games at outhalf last season, he came home from the tour as everyone’s answer to a conundrum: solve the Johnny Sexton vacuum by giving Frawley Leinster games at 10, so be can battle it out with Munster’s Jack Crowley for the green shirt.
The last month has changed that picture dramatically. It unfolded in one of those nightmare sequences where the man off the bench makes the impact he dreads. If the last gasp drop goal in Durban was the kicker to a stalled career then for Frawley the run-on part against the All Blacks was its polar opposite. Sure enough, the speed with which his star had been hailed as the brightest in the sky was matched by the breakneck pace of the descent. Turned out he was dismissed as a meteor.
Before you could dwell on the madness of that rush to judgement along came Sam Prendergast. The Newbridge boy has enough good advisors close at hand to keep him in check. He’ll need them, for overnight he went from a run-on debutant against Fiji to an applicant for long term tenancy on the back of his start against the Wallabies.
Against New Zealand Ireland were on the back foot for much of the game, winning only the metric for tackles made – instructive in itself. Across the four Tests they averaged in double figures for penalties conceded.
So why is Andy Farrell uneasy about what he’s leaving behind? He went out on a limb to skip Prendergast past Jack Crowley. It could not have worked out better. Should he not be delighted at striking gold so soon?
The coach’s satisfaction is tempered by what’s going on with the Irish attack, regardless of who is wearing the leader’s jersey, and the struggle to turn pressure into points. For the number two ranked team in the world their lineout is less of a lethal weapon and more of an antique that might or might not fire. Their scrum could best be described as interesting.
Against New Zealand Ireland were on the back foot for much of the game, winning only the metric for tackles made – instructive in itself. Across the four Tests they averaged in double figures for penalties conceded. When it came to the sign off, against Australia, they left the steepling stat of 21 handling errors (versus New Zealand) in the shade with a figure of 28.
You could understand if the team at the end of their season were losing the war against fatigue but the handling of the tourists was on a different scale. So you could understand if Farrell was sheepish as he slid the baton across the table to Easterby.
When a team looks tired at this point of the campaign then it asks questions about how many players have growth potential and how many are struggling to maintain what they have gained
This could hit Easterby full force if he has to fetch up to the Six Nations minus a few stalwarts from the forward pack. We’ve already seen over November a glimpse of life without Tadhg Furlong. This is his 10th international season and while Finlay Bealham is the established back-up that’s not the same as trying to wedge Furlong out of his seat.
If only there was some balance to the front row equation. McCarthy is now part of surely the best stocked hooking club on the circuit, featuring Sheehan, Ronan Kelleher and Lee Barron at Leinster.
The other side of the scrum has a flashing red light over it. Andrew Porter is only a year behind Furlong playing Test rugby but has become so important he’s in the same class as John Hayes when the Munster tight head was the first name on Eddie O’Sullivan’s Ireland team sheet. That is not healthy, and explains why Cian Healy is now Ireland’s record cap holder when he should have been wiped from that race a few seasons ago by someone many years his junior. This is Ireand’s problem, not Healy’s.
If only there was some balance to the front row equation. The absence of Dan Sheehan from the autumn series was cushioned nicely by the arrival of Gus McCarthy, first against Fiji and then on a try-scoring mission off the bench against Australia. McCarthy is now part of surely the best stocked hooking club on the circuit, featuring Sheehan, Ronan Kelleher and Lee Barron at Leinster.
McCarthy and Prendergast were part of a four-part boy band completed by Tom Clarkson and Cormac Izuchukwu. The Ulster utility forward, out of County Offaly – not a rugby stronghold – has heaps of talent, but the opening pair have already established they have presence to go with the nuts and bolts of their rugby games. As for Clarkson, steady progress and slim pickings have got him an hour’s Test rugby in two roughly equal bursts. We’ll see what comes next.
And that’s about it. Perhaps finding two stars in any November series is a decent return, but surrounding them with lights that are fading takes away from the discovery. Farrell used a dozen names off the bench across the four games. They are a mix of fellas whose best days are well behind them, a couple unsure whether they are treading water or making ground, and one very promising candidate in Jamie Osborne, who would have seen more game time but for injury.
Jumble that lot up and you can hear Easterby asking the club of tried and trusted if they are low on juice or do they need an overhaul. When he looks out the window for the next cabs off the rank he’ll be wondering why there isn’t a queue around the block.
