SIN & BEAR IT

Farrell prefers not to single out individuals as his side pays heavy price for widespread indiscipline

- BY DEREK FOLEY

AS Andy Farrell and his coaching team watched on against South Africa, they were understandably deaf to the entreaties being screamed at every TV set across the country.

Managers make first-half substitutions in football but not so much in the more conservative oval ball arena.

Yet, despite scrum penalties raining down on Ireland in that opening period, the line up remained as you were.

It was something that was to prove costly when Sam Prendergast was sin-binned for offside – the offside wasn't the issue, it was the cumulative effect of penalties mainly caused by Andrew Porter.

The Ireland coach put up a brave case for the defence afterwards, part of which suggested the loss of James Ryan to his 21st-minute red card had exacerbated the problems at the scrum.

So why not make a first-half replacement, try to tackle the problem at source? Farrell said: “Well obviously you get advice from what scrum coach John Fogarty is saying and seeing in real time on the floor. You get advice from what's going on there.