Tom Savage: Pressure is on Andy Farrell and Ireland after opening round loss

Homer Simpson: Hey, Flanders, you’re the worst coach this team has ever had!

Marge Simpson: He’s the only coach this team has ever had. And the season hasn’t even started yet.

Homer Simpson: Yeah, well, he’s… wearing that hat like an idiot.

Marge Simpson: You know, Homer, it’s very easy to criticize.

Homer Simpson: Fun too.

I think that most people go through their lives under the assumption that they’re good people and, even though it doesn’t seem like it at times, most people are pretty decent on some level. At the very least, most people would like to think that they’re decent people and yet, I saw several of those people directly tagging Peter O’Mahony and Billy Burns into the dumbest abuse you can imagine after their respective incidents in last Sunday’s game. You could see it on Twitter, you could see it on Instagram and that was just the stuff that was easily searchable. I haven’t been on any Facebook groups of forums because I’m not supposed to get slurry directly into my eyeballs. 

There are real people behind those comments directing real bile and toxicity at other real people because they did something bad in a rugby game. This isn’t to say those rugby players (or public figures in general) should be immune from criticism. I think it’s possible – and healthy – to have well-balanced, measured criticism of players in public spaces, just like it’s possible to praise players without suggesting that they are the best to have ever lived – unless we’re talking about David Wallace, in which case fight me because he’s the best of all time. 

When I see these randos abusing players on social media in such a way that they are maximising the chances that the player might read it – directly tagging them on Twitter, for example – I see an example of a diseased way of thinking that we see too often on social media. Part of it is “slagging” culture, which Irish people claim to love but I’m not sure people can properly handle in a world where our entire lives play out in the black rectangle attached to the end of our arm. There’s something about that black mirror can make you lose perspective.  

Throw in all the enforced boredom and frustration of a level 5 lockdown, and people can lose the run of themselves. Maybe they got lost in the woods in forum wars and felt like they had to stick the knife in on Twitter to get some catharsis. Maybe they hoped that some of the misery they feel rubs off on the player. 

Either way, it’s a deeply sad mentality. 

***

Ireland’s loss to Wales has poured a lot of extra pressure onto next weekend’s game against France. Playing Les Blues in Dublin after our defeat last time out was always going to be a big game but now it’s in the context of being part of a possible two-game losing streak before a game vs Italy and then a runaway to a Scotland side who just beat England and then England in Dublin, who’ll be better than we saw this past weekend.

Four losses from five is not out of the question at the moment, especially with injury and possible suspension issues piling up. Make no mistake, this loss is significant. Sure, Ireland played really well and should have won regardless of the red card but the ugly fact is that they lost and the games do not get any easier from here.

These next four games will define the middle part of Andy Farrell’s tenure. I’m dismissing Italy as a game that Ireland will almost certainly win regardless – if we lose that one, anything is on the table – but this next sequence of France (A), Scotland (H) and England (H) is as tough a run in context as Ireland have had in a good few years.

Andy Farrell’s selection from here on out will define Ireland’s trajectory heading into 2023, which will be here before we know it. Andy Farrell’s contract runs until that same World Cup so while there is no ticking clock on an expiring deal, we are getting close to the midway point in his tenure. The pandemic has squeezed time over the last year so it doesn’t feel like the halfway point, but we’re at the point now where Ireland will need to be close to who they’re going to be by this time next season. Results pressure now is often incompatible with development aims like that but that’s the reality. Four-year contract or not, Farrell will now that his job – and the heat in the chair – comes from managing results. This loss to Wales has raised the temperature but the cooling effect of a win against France could go a long way to let us know who Andy Farrell’s Ireland are and who they’re going to be. 

No pressure.