‘Special day’ – Farrell revels in record Irish win

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said his players “showed respect for each other and the jersey” as he hailed Saturday’s 42-21 Six Nations win over England as a “special day”.

A ravenous and resurgent Irish side scored five tries to secure their biggest away win over England and reignite their title ambitions.

And Farrell, who was critical of his side following their 36-14 loss to France a fortnight ago, was delighted with the graft his players put in to deliver a vintage Irish display.

“It’s a special day, 100% is, to come here and perform like that,” said Farrell.

“We’re delighted with that. But even more so than that for us, I thought the respect the lads showed for one another out there was immense.

“The respect they showed for the jersey and what it meant to them and respect for the Irish people really. To learn some lessons and grow as a group and a team was the overriding feeling for me.”

Ireland skipper Caelan Doris, who Farrell said had his “one of his best games in a while”, echoed the coach’s comments.

“It’s big,” Doris said when asked what Saturday’s display will do for Ireland’s belief.

“I spoke to you guys about Paris being a reference point and hopefully we’ll see a pretty steep incline in performances.

“I think this will now be a reference point that we look back on as a proper good performance that’s given us a lot of belief.

Farrell, who has come under increasing pressure after defeats by New Zealand, South Africa and France since he returned from the British and Irish Lions tour, said he was thrilled with how his players “got out of their own way”.

He also pinpointed Stuart McCloskey chasing down Marcus Smith in the closing stages of the game as a telling indicator of his side’s hunger.

“What that accumulated to was some fantastic rugby that was broken-field stuff,” added Farrell, who said the squad welcomed the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin into the dressing room after the game.

“We got them on the break, made line-breaks from deep within our own half and ground it out on their line.

“The telling parts of Stu McCloskey chasing Marcus back and being able to put him in touch just shows the fight and the Rob Baloucoune one [turnover] on the far side shows the fight and the spirit these lads have got for one another and what it means to them.”

When asked if Ireland simply wanted it more than England, who were already wounded from last week’s defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield, Farrell said: “It looked like we were hunting people down throughout the game.