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Andy Farrell voices satisfaction with 'improved' performance

Having watched his charges swat aside the challenge of last year's Grand Slam winners, few could ...



Having watched his charges swat aside the challenge of last year's Grand Slam winners, few could be surprised that Andy Farrell was quite pleased with Ireland's Saturday afternoon exploits. 

The home side ran in four tries to earn a bonus-point 24-14 win, ahead of a trip to Twickenham for a clash with Eddie Jones' England in two weeks' time.

After a hard-earned win over Scotland on the opening weekend, Farrell was encouraged by Ireland's enhanced performance.

"It was an improved performance," the new head coach offered.

"The start was the complete reverse to last week. I thought Scotland attacked really well and we were a little passive at the start of the game last week and they got a foothold into the game. I thought we did exactly that in the first half, so that was pleasing.

"I suppose the baseline from our point of view to make sure that we're nice and physical for the full 80 minutes, I thought there were some heroic moments last week especially in those moments when we had to dig deep to win the game. But I thought we got that one hundred percent across the 80 minutes today, I thought it was excellent, we were going forward in defence and attack."

With two weeks until the trip across the Irish Sea, Farrell was keen to emphasize the importance of the extended break.

"We have a few days off now, then we've for a three-day camp, then the weekend off which is great for us, we play England on the Sunday which gives us an extra day rest as well.

"It's great for us to have a couple of days off to assess the game again and see what areas we need to keep building on and we'll do that in our training camp, we'll use that wisely and take the rest over the weekend to make sure we're better the week after against England."

The head-coach reserved particular praise for his captain, Johnny Sexton, describing his performances over the past two weekends as 'sensational'.

"The chat all week from the boys he drags out of them is second to none because it brings that unity, that honesty and that trust throughout the group. Having seen his last two performances, with last week being the one that he's not played after 8 weeks is nothing short of sensational really."

 

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