Other nations have every reason to mock Irish rugby… even Wales and Scotland… but signs are Andy Farrell has gone back 40 years to come up with a plan to silence those cat-calls

It is early days on the Andy Farrell-Ireland reset but we are seeing hard evidence of a mindset shift that is both encouraging and extremely exciting.

There has, finally, been a realisation that the ‘win what is in front of you’ approach does not work for Ireland — not when it comes to reaching World Cup semi-finals at least.

So, since the demoralising loss away to France in the opening round of this year’s Six Nations, Ireland head coach Farrell has been only too willing to look down the road towards Australia 2027, whereas before World Cup cycles were very much a ‘change the subject’ topic.

And, if Farrell has done an about-turn, then so too have the Irish rugby media and supporters.

Not so long ago, mention of the importance of building for the World Cup and Ireland’s torrid history in the tournament would elicit groans, fingers in the ears and rolling of the eyes on the basis of ‘can we not just enjoy the here and now?’.

There was also the old reliable excuse of ‘we are just a small rugby nation, overperforming against the big boys’ — which is true, to an extent, but always felt like a cop out and an acceptance of failure on the biggest stage.

Scotland, Argentina and Wales — teams that Ireland routinely dominate between World Cups —have all made semi-finals and that should be a constant stick-in-the-craw fact.

There has been a tendency in Irish rugby to crow when the national team and provinces are going well and, in recent times, there has been a degree of mockery sent in the direction of Wales with that once-great rugby nation embroiled in crisis for some years now.

But the Welsh can point to the fact that they have made the World Cup semi-finals three times — that is three times more than Ireland —- and were agonisingly close to reaching the final in 2011 (they were beaten 9-8 by France after losing captain Sam Warburton to a red card after only 18 minutes) and 2019 (they lost 19-16 to eventual champions South Africa).

And, any Argentinian fans smarting after being taken apart 42-12 by Ireland at the weekend, can take comfort in their World Cup record — they have also been to three World Cup semi-finals, in 2007 and 2015 when they used Ireland as road bumps along the way and in 2023 — that they may not be great in November windows but the Pumas pony up when it counts.

But that was then. Since Ireland’s French loss earlier this year, the clear change in approach from Farrell has filtered down through the squad (there will be no more ‘see you in the final’ talk) and coaches and onto the media and supporters.

Belatedly, there has been a realisation that there is no use being No1 in the world between tournaments (as Ireland have been repeatedly) if you cannot get out of the top eight when it really counts — and the reaction to an extremely impressive dismantling of Argentina last weekend has been rational and intelligent.

SELECTION BOX

There is intelligence evident also in how Farrell and Ireland have embraced the bigger picture when it comes to selection.

Working within the previous mindset, Ireland would have gone into the opening round of the November Tests with a fully loaded team of established frontliners to get the window up and running.

That is what they did this time last year against New Zealand when they were brushed aside in Chicago — a game that had no relevance to anything significant down the line, win or lose, but could have been used as a vital opportunity to assess individuals for two years later.

Which is what Ireland did against Argentina last Friday.

With less than a year to go, now is the time to rule players in, or out, in terms of getting on a plane to Australia.

The selections of Craig Casey and Nick Timoney were hugely significant in this regard.

If Ireland were playing a World Cup quarter-final in the morning, you could bet the house on Jamison Gibson Park being in the No9 jersey and Josh van der Flier in the No7.

Leaving both established frontliners out of the starting XV was not a case of that pair being dropped, it was a valuable chance to have a look at Casey and Timoney to assess their ability to set up should Gibson-Park and Van der Flier, both well into their 30s, be ruled out before a big knockout game.

Going into the Argentina match, it was hard to predict how much pressure Ireland would face and it would have been very easy to go with the tried and trusted and keep Casey and Timoney to start against Fiji in an outing where victory was much more likely.

But Farrell gave them their chance and was rewarded handsomely. Casey is a different style of scrum-half to Gibson-Park but is quicker to the breakdowns and gave a mature display, quelling the impetuosity that has compromised some of his performances up to now and generally making the right decisions at the right time.

Timoney looks lean and tough and equipped for elite rugby and, while you would still expect Gibson-Park and Van der Flier to be frontline selections in Farrell’s head there is no longer a yawning gap undeneath them and both are on their toes knowing they have to produce big performances to hold off the competition.

Likewise the selection of tighthead Sam Illo on the bench. It would have been very easy to stick with the proven veteran Finlay Bealham this window, but Farrell and his fellow coaches clearly see something in the combative Illo and now is the time to bring him up to speed and give him his head.

Smart calls all around.

GIVE IT A LASH

THERE are plenty who would argue that the world does not need another rugby podcast —there are a host of them out there, all mining the same trench, with various degrees of blokey banter — but the Ian Madigan ‘Irish Rugby Pod’ is decent value.

And it was interesting to get the former Leinster and Ireland out-half’s take on the game last Friday from a tactical point of view because there is uplifting evidence to show that the mindset shift in terms of planning off the pitch has been matched by an equally progressive one on it.

‘What really pleased me was the freedom that they played with,’ said Madigan. ‘When you think back to the 2023 World Cup, it was structured, it was picking the lock… against Argentina, you are seeing Joe McCarthy going on bullocking runs, Mack Hansen playing with freedom, Sam Prendergast playing what’s in front of him.

‘You could see the fluidity, the ambition of the team and then when they did move the ball into the wider channels, the big thing was the offloading. I mean they offloaded the ball 18 times, that is 50 percent more than what they were doing that last season.

‘We are seeing that ambition, we are seeing them adapting to the way the game is going and that is keeping the game alive,’ added Madigan.

He also made reference to the marked improvement in handling skills — proper pass-catch ability which should be a pre-requisite for every professional rugby player.

Hopefully, this approach will filter all the way down to the grassroots because there should be far more emphasis on invention and adventure from underage rugby up.

A few years ago, when involved with under 9s mini rugby, it was a bit of a shock to the system to see eight-year-olds being coached in rucking technique and extensive tackling drills — adhering to coaching policies handed down from above at the height of Ireland’s pre-programmed period of excellence.

Rucking and tackling are obviously key elements of rugby but at that age, kids should really be doing nothing besides running and passing and scoring tries for fun — ‘tip rugby’ essentially.

But the pragmatic coaching of minis has carried on into the rugby secondary schools, teenagers schooled exhaustively on process and programming rather than being encouraged to play what they see.

If the Ireland national side is embracing a more off-the-cuff style, it is natural that the provinces and clubs will follow suit and then, hopefully, the schools and minis.

There was a time, not that long ago, when trying a 50-50 pass the way Hansen did for the first Irish try on Friday was liable to get you dropped — now, although they have to be careful not to go too far the other way, adventure is encouraged. And not before time.

For the more venerable of Irish rugby followers, this is reminiscent of the autumn of 1984 when the great Mick Doyle had just taken over as Ireland coach.

Realising he did not have a pack heavy enough to mix it with the big dogs, or a kicking out-half at elite level (following the retirement of Ollie Campbell), ‘Doyler’ decided his best option was to play fast and loose.

‘We are going to give it a lash,’ said Doyle, and they did — to the point of landing a glorious Triple Crown in 1985.

Modern rugby demands more nuance than the simple ‘give it a lash’ approach but the core principle of freeing the mind holds and that is hugely encouraging less than 12 months out from the big one.