After his team’s 36-14 defeat at the Stade de France, Andy Farrell recognized the superiority of the Blues during the first 40 minutes.
Andy Farrell, Ireland coach: “France played a different sport than us in the first half. We lost the battle on high balls, missed tackles . I don’t need to look at the statistics to see that we weren’t good… The balls seemed to stick to the French. And then, with their speed, they gained momentum. On the refereeing, we were on the wrong side of the decisions tonight (Thursday evening), but that’s not why we lost the match. We have to be honest with ourselves and work next week, individually and collectively, to show a different face against Italy next week.
Caelan Doris, Ireland captain: “It didn’t go the way we had hoped or planned. We lacked a bit of bite in the first half. Of their class, we weren’t good enough. Not good enough on percussion, not good enough on aerial playing. Our bench had a big impact in the second half (Editor’s note: score went from 29-0 to 29-14). But the mountain was too high at that time. We have to start from scratch to react next week.”
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Comments collected at a press conference
