Ireland Fiji Nations Championship Andy Farrell post-match analysis, Digi Mart USA News (Dublin, Ireland): Ireland beat Fiji 43-15 in the Nations Championship, a win head coach Andy Farrell described as hard-earned and ultimately convincing. According to the publisher’s report, Ireland were five points down after 25 minutes against a Fiji side that was winning collisions and running physically through the line.
Farrell said the scoreline flattered Ireland slightly, but he stressed that winning under pressure was valuable. He said the team had been stop-start and had contributed to that with a few errors, but that Ireland had brought energy back into their game and worked their way back into the match.
The result leaves Ireland third in the Northern Hemisphere table behind England on points difference and one point behind France.
Injuries were a concern. James McNabney, who made a brief debut off the bench, suffered a head injury and did not return; Farrell said he was recovering well.
Jamie Osborne left in the fourth minute with an apparent pec muscle injury, and Sam Illo departed for a head injury assessment. Caelan Doris, Jack Conan and Sean Jansen are ruled out of next week’s game under the mandatory 12-day return-to-play protocols, and McNabney is also not expected to be available.
Attention now turns to next Saturday’s match against South Africa, the reigning world champions, at the Aviva Stadium. Farrell said Ireland would review the Fiji game, take the lessons from it, and look forward to testing themselves against South Africa, whose current rugby he described as a fantastic challenge.
The match kicks off at 4.40pm.
