Irish have shed the ‘fall off a cliff’ mentality, says Farrell

Ireland have grown to be at ease with being ranked number one in the world, head coach Andy Farrell said, making it one less challenge to contemplate heading into the Rugby World Cup quarter-final with New Zealand on Saturday.

The Irish have been number one since they recorded a historic series win in New Zealand in July 2022.

“I suppose an inferiority complex is what’s happened in the past, as far as getting to world number one and thinking that we’re going to fall off a cliff, because this shouldn’t be happening to Ireland,” said Farrell.

“I think what we’ve learned to do is throw ourselves into big challenges and try to meet them head on and embrace that.”

If victorious on Saturday at the Stade de France they will become only the third tier-one nation to record 18 successive Test victories — the All Blacks and England being the others.

Farrell is also attempting to take Ireland into new territory, a World Cup semi-final — which would also bring them a step nearer to emulating England in 2003 in completing the Six Nations Grand Slam and World Cup double.

However, four years ago the All Blacks destroyed Joe Schmidt’s Irish team, when Farrell was an assistant coach, at the quarter-final stage.

Farrell, though, has not only transformed the team into playing a more crowd-pleasing brand of rugby than under Schmidt but also added a steely side to them too.

That is due to his decision to bring in Gary Keegan as performance director.

Keegan in the past has been instrumental in the success of Irish boxers — who won seven medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics — and the Dublin Gaelic Football team.

‘Bloody good team’

Farrell said he respects the All Blacks for their constancy in remaining at the top of the sport for so many years.

Nevertheless the 48-year-old Englishman appears to have found them out as he goes in search of his fourth win in five Tests against the Kiwis on Saturday.

“We don’t want to be second best, we want to be first best, but we also realise what comes with that is people are chasing you down,” said Farrell.

“You’ve seen with the All Blacks over the last 20 years. That’s why they’re so respected, because it’s hard to stay at the top.

“The guys that are the favourites are always the ones I’ve always looked at, throughout my career, and envied really because of how hard it is to do that.

“That’s the place we want to be because if you’re serious about getting better and being the team you want to be, that’s the world that you’ve got to live in.”

Farrell concedes that while “things start to creep in” to players’ minds in a week leading up to such an important match, he is confident they are equipped to deal with whatever the All Blacks come up with.

“Of course things start to creep in but we’ve tools and experience to be able to combat that,” he said.

“I suppose the main part is to realise that we’re a bloody good team that play together and when we do that, you’re not on your own so you can get away from those types of thoughts.”