Ireland coach Andy Farrell believes falling short of back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slams will be the “best thing” for the development of his squad after masterminding another title success.
Farrell’s men retained the Six Nations trophy on Saturday by beating Scotland 17-13 in Dublin to bounce back from losing their 100 per cent record in agonising fashion against England.
Ireland’s current crop of stars are largely unfamiliar with losing thanks to a remarkable run of 33 wins from 37 Tests during the past three years.
Head coach Farrell feels last weekend’s 23-22 Twickenham defeat will ultimately prevent complacency creeping in moving towards a two-match summer series against world champions South Africa and autumn appointments with New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia.
“It was a fantastic campaign for this group and we’re continuing on from where we left off and trying to improve,” he said.
“But we all know things change year on year as far as personnel’s concerned and injuries and whatnot, staff leaving, staff coming in.
“I reckon the loss last week will be the best thing for us as a group because some of these lads, subconsciously now, not through their own doing, they’ve been used to winning.
“For some of the lads who are not used to losing at all, they get to a point where they’re turning up for games actually thinking, ‘we’re doing it’.
Ireland retained the Six Nations but missed out on the Grand Slam
“You’re never ‘doing it’. You’re never doing it in the Six Nations because things change week to week and that Test match last week was a proper Test match in Twickenham.
“We’ll learn the lessons from that and that will be powerful for us going forward like this one [against Scotland] was.”
PA