‘The whole squad thinks it’s their team’ – Farrell

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell feels the togetherness of his squad has been key to the progress of three Six Nations victories in a row after suffering an opening night defeat to France.

A hard-earned 27-17 bonus-point win over Wales in Dublin on Friday night set up a Triple Crown decider against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on 14 March, with both sides also harbouring title aspirations going into the final round of fixtures.

Ireland have used 33 players in this year’s championship so far but Farrell says there is a solidarity among the group which is driving the squad on.

“You’ve got to find out about people but these [caps] are not freebies – we’ve given starts and the chances out to people who deserve it.

“It just shows that the whole of the squad is hungry to be part of it, and grow the squad.

“It’s nice to feel that the whole squad thinks it’s their team and that they’re all trying to contribute to us pushing forward.”

Farrell singled out some of the players who particularly impressed him in the victory over the Welsh, many having also contributed positively in the emphatic win over England at Twickenham two weeks previously.

“For people to back up good performances at this level that haven’t had that much exposure, that’s pretty impressive,” he said.

“We’re probably talking about Robert Baloucoune. To have a performance like he did in the last game and then to back it up this week is what you want.

“I thought Jack Conan, he’d have been a bit peeved off [after missing the England game because of illness], so to get his start he showed up really well.

The Ireland head coach identified some of the areas for improvement from the display against Wales as the team prepare to try and finish their campaign on a high.

“I thought we didn’t exit quite as well as we did in the past. They obviously pressured Jamison [Gibson-Park] quite a bit and got some rewards from that.

“There was an exit that we overplayed from about 25 or 30 out but you’ve just got to feel where the game’s at and respect the game for what it is.

“I thought we overplayed sometimes from around halfway. Sometimes you have to respect what the opposition are doing well, and they were defending pretty well.

“A bit of territory is what we needed to take the pressure off I would have thought.”

Farrell went on to explain that the players would take the initiative in addressing the issue.

“We’ll obviously review it and talk about it, but they will come up with it themselves. They know the score, we’ve already talked about it.

“That’s what the lads do, they watch the game before we have the meetings about it so they’ll be up to speed.

“Because the speed of ball was nowhere near as quick as it was last week the clear and obvious thing they were doing was hitting in two, slowing the ball down, but almost opening from the edge defence there.