After some doubts early in his tenure, it is now abundantly clear that Andy Farrell is the perfect head coach for Ireland.
While he had never led his own team prior to stepping into the Irish job, he has more than proven that he is a top level coach. The strides the team have made under his stewardship have been remarkable, steadily growing to become the best team in world rugby as things stand.
They still have a long way to go over the remainder of 2023, but there are signs that it could be a historic year.
However, despite being a top level performer at the pinnacle of elite sport, it seems that Farrell is still concerned about getting a scolding from his mother.
Andy Farrell makes joke about a telling off from his mother
Ireland did not have it all their own way in the Six Nations game against Italy yesterday. Despite running in four tries in the first half in Rome, the hosts more than held their own as the contest was very much in the balance heading into the final ten minutes.
Irish supporters were certainly fearing that they were about to witness a historic upset, with Andy Farrell himself very concerned before Mack Hansen's try wrapped up the win in the 71st minute.
Speaking after the game, the Englishman joked that he was expecting a few words from his mother after he was seen biting his nails in the closing stages of the game (h/t Irish Sun).
My mother will be on giving out to me! It was a tough match, a proper test match, you know.
Which Irish fan wouldn’t have been biting their nails?..
I suppose the positive is the chances that we did create but the negative is that we didn’t take them all again. What was it? Four or five tries that we left out there?
But all credit must go to Italy, that was a proper test match, that was tough. They’re a proper side, everyone can see their progression but when you’re here and when you’re facing it…
We let them into the game through lack of discipline at times and we didn’t control the game as well as we should in that regard.
But test match rugby does not go your own way the whole time but we found a way, even though we threw away four or five tries, we found a way and it’s nice to get the bonus point win away from home.
Yesterday's game was always going to be a challenge after the highs of beating France a couple of weeks previous, with Andy Farrell hoping that his side enter the game against Scotland in a couple of weeks on a more even keel.
A victory in that game would have them well on their way to winning a Grand Slam, with England to come at the Aviva Stadium on the closing weekend.
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