Eire head coach Andy Farrell says his group nonetheless have “so much to do” forward of subsequent 12 months’s World Cup regardless of the superb 2022 they’ve loved.
Saturday evening’s house victory over Australia made it a hat-trick of Autumn Sequence wins that began by them beating world champions South Africa.
That got here after the Irish accomplished a first-ever away collection win over New Zealand in the summertime.
“With so much to do,” Farrell stated when requested the place they stand forward of 2023.
“That’s nice and that’s the actuality. We now have sure points of our sport, as at all times, that we’d like to get higher.
“We are able to analyse that sport [the win over Australia] till the cows come house and get higher however we have now obtained to maintain pushing ahead with all points of our sport.
“We now have obtained be extra revolutionary as a training employees so we count on after we are available in for the Six Nations to enhance our sport and preserve pushing on ahead.”
World rating system ‘a little bit bit irrelevant’
Saturday evening’s match at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium was a tense and cagey encounter, with a 77th-minute penalty from substitute fly-half Ross Byrne, solely within the squad after captain Johnny Sexton pulled out injured minutes earlier than kick-off, giving the hosts a dogged 13-10 victory.
In addition to capping a stellar 12 months for Farrell and his gamers, it maintained their standing because the world’s high facet however the head coach continued to insist that he pays little or no consideration to what he described as an “irrelevant” world rating system.
“I really nonetheless do not understand how the factors system works,” he continued.
“I am unable to be actually bothered making an attempt to work it out as a result of it’s a little bit irrelevant within the sense that we need to preserve enhancing our performances, preserve pushing ahead and testing ourselves.
“However the those who deserve the accolades are the lads [the players] that put the work in.
“They’ve earned the precise to be up there they usually have additionally earned the precise to be shot down as effectively. The pressures are going to be good for us in that regard.”
‘The Autumn video games have been nice for us’
Shedding captain Johnny Sexton on the final minute, to a calf pressure sustained within the warm-up, meant Jack Crowley needed to begin at fly-half with Byrne taking his place on the bench.
Farrell expressed sympathy for his influential skipper, who had missed the win over Fiji the week earlier than with a useless leg, however stated he welcomed his squad being challenged.
He additionally mirrored positively on an Autumn Sequence that delivered three victories – even when the performances weren’t significantly eye-catching.
“It isn’t ideally suited [losing Sexton so late on] however to seek out out in a window like that’s unbelievable for us as a bunch,” he stated.
“I believe the Autumn has been nice for us. I do not suppose we have now performed our greatest rugby however to play towards South Africa, that was a take a look at everybody wished to see us handle, and we did that fairly effectively.
“We had a bit extra of a chance towards Fiji and learnt some good classes from that.
“We have not performed Australia for 5 years. We do not take something on that we all know is popping out from the media with reference to their kind as a result of we all know that the Australian mentality implies that when their backs are towards the wall they’re at all times going to come back and produce a efficiency like that.
“I simply stated to the boys that they have to get used to it. We now have obtained to get higher and lift our requirements as a result of the fact is that individuals coming to the Aviva now count on us to play at our best possible, and we have now obtained to be higher in that regard.”
