Andy Farrell gives reaction to bullish Fiji camp that labeled Ireland as 'vulnerable'
Frank Lomani landed here and promptly announced Ireland were vulnerable - no he wasn't misquoted, he said it twice.
The flying Fijians became the Mouthy Fijians this week, scrum-half Frank Lomani landing here and promptly announcing Ireland were vulnerable - no he wasn't misquoted, he said it twice.
Fiji have been on tour in Europe this month and the player was talking on the back of his side beating Spain 33-19, Wales (currently on an 11 match losing run) 24-19 and losing 57-17 to Scotland.
Given Ireland's November campaign featured a win and a loss against Argentina and the All Blacks, both of whom were world-ranked five when they played the respective games here, Lomani's assertion raised some eyebrows.
“Well you’re talking about it as well as me," said Farrell who had clearly taken in the idea Fiji thought Ireland were, well, vulnerable.
"People think the lads don’t read it but they do. They might tell you that they don’t but they do, 100 percent they do. It’s great. It’s what you want.
“You want to play against sides that are confident and who think that it’s an opportunity for themselves because we have to rise to that.”
At the same time it is the best Fijian squad that's ever been assembled outside a Rugby World Cup window, by far the best that has come to Ireland and Farrell expects to face their full-strength team, not one with up-and-coming try-outs.
“Yeah I’d expect that. Listening to their scrum-half (Lomani) yesterday, they expect that as well, which is great you know?
"Why wouldn’t you? They’ve proved over the last couple of years their consistency of performance because of their players playing in big games, not just internationally but all around the world now.
"You look at the Drua (Fiji's Super Rugby franchise), you look at who’s involved in France, who’s involved in the United Kingdom, they’re all playing top-level rugby and playing bloody well in that regard.
"So you would expect that to transfer. When you’ve got good coaching staff that’s bringing them together, the consistency and expectation should be where it is. That all accumulates to them believing in the performance they’re looking forward to out here on Saturday."
There was mention for the other opposition to be taken care of, the referee - Ireland have conceded 13 penalties in each of their last two games. Back when, Joe Schmidt laid the ground rule for Ireland at less than 10.
“Referees always get things wrong and so do we. Our way of going about these things is you take the referee out of the game by making sure that you do things properly anyway.
"We’re not the type of side – even though it wouldn’t look like it over the last couple of weeks – who wants to play on the edge, or over the edge. We want to be accurate with what we’re doing. Obviously there’s a couple of trends with offsides.
"That’s a little bit too much enthusiasm, lack of composure etc, and it’s not one person, it’s a mixture. It’s something obviously that we keep talking about and owning up to. We need to have a better performance in that regard at the weekend.”
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