Ireland took a 35-17 win over Fiji on Saturday afternoon, a scoreline which looks routine on paper - Irish head coach Andy Farrell, however, was unimpressed with his side's performance.
Despite having a two-man advantage for a period of the game, and a Fijian player being sent off, Ireland were unable to push on after taking the lead, struggling to break down the Fijian defence.
It was a lacklustre display, despite the 35 points Ireland managed to put on the scoreboard. Andy Farrell spoke to Virgin Media after the game, and was not impressed with the Irish display.
Ireland v Fiji: Andy Farrell slates Irish performance
Tries from Nick Timoney (2), Robert Baloucoune, Mack Hansen, and Cian Healy helped Ireland to make it two from two in the Autumn Nations Series against Fiji on Saturday evening. It could, and arguably should, have been an even more comprehensive win for the Irish side, with Fiji on the ropes after a red card reduced them to 14 men in the second half.
Speaking to the media after the game, Ireland coach Andy Farrell was unimpressed with his side's inability to push on from the man advantage.
"I thought we was awful, I thought we was poor..."
Andy Farrell gave his thoughts on Ireland's performance today!#IREvFIJ | #ANS pic.twitter.com/iy8aatDmmK— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 12, 2022
He lamented Ireland's slow start to the game, as well as their attitude in not pushing for additional tries at the game's conclusion.
Farrell said:
I thought we was awful, I thought we was poor. We need to have much continuity.
The way that we started the game was slow, the way that we finished the game kicking the ball into the crowd and not having a crack summed it all up a little bit. Plenty of learnings for us.
Fair play to Fiji, going down to 13 men, couple of yellow cards coming back on and off - they were resilient and they'll 100% be saying that they defended their own 22 pretty well. But the amount of access we got in there and didn't convert into points was pretty disappointing for us.
Some lads will be disappointed. We started poorly, which has not been like us over the last few weeks. We'll sit down and assess the reasons why.
It was a particularly strong interview from Andy Farrell, somewhat unexpectedly so after what was, on paper, a resounding Irish win.
His sentiment, however, was echoed by the panel on Virgin Media, with Rob Kearney in particular slating the lack of quality and cutting edge on show from Ireland against Fiji.
Nonetheless, Ireland have now won 11 games in a row at the Aviva Stadium and, after last week's massive win against world champions South Africa, they have the chance to make it a perfect series when they face Australia next Saturday night in Dublin.
Andy Farrell will be hoping to see more from his team against the Wallabies.
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