Farrell: We should enjoy defending

Defence coach Andy Farrell is confident Ireland can bounce back from their disappointing defeat to Scotland in the RBS Six Nations.

Ireland conceded two tries in the opening 21 minutes at Murrayfield before Keith Earls crossed over to reduce the deficit in the 26th minute. However, Ireland suffered a lapse in concentration to allow Alex Dunbar to get his name on the scoreboard and leave Joe Schmidt's side with a mountain to climb.

Although they fought back to take the lead just after the hour mark, two late penalties from Greig Laidlaw consigned Ireland to a 27-22 defeat.

Farrell has been praised for the work he has done on Ireland's defence since his appointment last year, but the 41-year-old was far from happy with the team's performance at Murrayfield and believes their 'mood' contributed to the result.

“We’ll work on the reasons why. I'm more concerned about the mood at the time, of our lack of want to get back in the line and enjoy our defence," Farrell told reporters at Carton House.

“Our mood was completely different in the first half compared to what it was in the second-half and I think we let things a little bit affect us and we shouldn't do that defensively, we should love defending.

"Every single time we get an opportunity to defend, we should love it and we didn't. So our mood was affected, our appetite was affected a little bit and we got it back in the second half.

“I think the upsetting thing for myself after the game was that Vern Cotter came up to me - and Scotland, all credit to them, I thought they played really well, especially in the first half - but he said, 'Jeez, you changed your defence in the second half, didn't you?'.

"And we didn't. We didn't. So now you can understand why I'm talking about the mood.

“In the second half we got the results for it, we got the ball back on plenty of occasions because of the pressure that we applied.

“But at this level, against a good Scottish side, and all credit to them, you don't get away with it.

“Or you nearly get away with it, you think you've nearly got away with it and all of a sudden in the last 10 minutes, you haven't.”

Ireland have just seven days to work on their defensive performance before the game against Italy on Saturday but Farrell is confident there will not be a repeat in Rome.

"We'll fix it. The disappointing thing with this game is that you're disappointed with the outcome of the first-half, but let's not forget that it was fantastic the way that they came back against a confident side that was bullish at half-time like Scotland and we came back and almost blew the game out of the water for a good 20-25 minutes," he said.

“To lose it twice isn't great to take, but the players are an honest bunch. They want to get better, they want to improve and they want to win the competition for Ireland.

“There's no doubt that come training they'll be wanting to get back on the horse and put it right.

“Not just yet. Well, look, we need to enjoy our defence this weekend against Italy, we need to get the ball back because if we don't, the Italians are going to be hard work for us.

“They showed that against Wales in the first half. It's a tough old match over there and we've seen plenty of games where teams have come unstuck so you have to be at your best in this championship against absolutely everyone.

“We know what the Italians can do, we know what they've done against South Africa and we know that they believe that if they get a sniff... so we've got to apply ourselves on the Italians and we need to get that appetite consistently higher this weekend.”

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