France 36-14 Ireland: “Andy Farrell’s side face real pressure and scrutiny after Parisian nightmare”

In contrast, Ireland’s confidence seemed low, and they once again looked weak against one of the teams they prefer to measure themselves against.

Last year, France tore Ireland to shreds in the second half, scoring 34 unanswered points in a stunning response to the loss of Antoine Dupont to injury.

In Chicago in November, the All Blacks escaped Ireland with three tries in 15 second-half minutes before South Africa beat them brutally.

With questions mounting about Ireland’s direction after that autumn campaign, Farrell now faces one of the most daunting challenges of his six-year reign.

For former Irish full-back Rob Kearney, the current situation is the first time this Irish outfit has felt “real pressure” to turn things around.

“I was less worried about the performances in November,” Kearney told the Ireland Rugby Social.

“The guys weren’t battle-hardened. They were coming back from that long tour, and they hadn’t played a whole lot of rugby. They went to Chicago, and half the team didn’t play 100 minutes.” [in the season].

“We lost that game but it was in the balance for 60 minutes. Then we play South Africa, who are playing a different game to any other team in the world at the moment, so I gave them a bit of a pass.”

“But actually, if you went back to September and looked at our games, you would have said, ‘Well, there’s a very good chance we’ll lose to New Zealand, South Africa and France and then we’ll go away to Twickenham and there’s a good chance we’ll lose there as well.'”

“So this is the first time this team has been under real pressure and real scrutiny. It’s going to be a different challenge for them.”