One's first day on the job is usually a scary one. But not many are like Andy Farrell's. Ireland's new defensive coach got to meet his players for the first time in camp at the weekend, and thoroughly scared his new team.
That's according to Jamie Heaslip anyway:
He’s scary because he can still shift tin, and I’ve seen him do some fitness sessions.
Technically that's not scare in the traditional sense - but the Ireland vice-captain gave an intriguing insight into how Ireland are likely to play under their new co-ordinator. Farrell has a tough job ahead of him, but his involvement is likely to free up Joe Schmidt to concentrate on the attacking style of play instead of taking on too much.
Heaslip said that the get-together involved a lot of introduction with Farrell, and some sessions on what the former England coach wants from them:
We only had one actual training session on Monday and it was just getting on his page, getting into his system. It’s a blend of what we’ve been trying to evolve prior to him and then obviously what he’s bringing in, bolting on.
He’s blending in with our language but then also adding in some new trigger words, I suppose. It was good. We had just over 45 minutes of the different ways he wants to use his D and it was good.
Ireland conceded their most amount of tries in the Six Nations since 2008 without a defensive co-ordinator. With six tests against the Southern Hemisphere three coming up in the next 7 games - Farrell's start couldn't get any harder.
It does seem that Farrell's exploits in the gym are already impressing the players - some of whom he's met on the Lions tour in 2013. We'll just have to see if that translates to a better Irish defense than we've seen.
