‘Everyone Is Intent On Correcting Things’ – Aled Walters Squad Update And Reaction

Ireland’s recently appointed new head of Athletic Performance Aled Walters gave a squad update today and spoke about the players’ reaction to Friday’s loss.

Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong is continuing to respond to treatment and may be in contention for selection having missed the match against New Zealand but Tom O’Toole, who replaced Finlay Bealham in the second half, has been ruled out following his head injury and will be stood down for 12 days before following the return to play protocols.

Walters said that the reaction to the performance, which And Farrell described as ‘suppressed’, was ‘honest, so home truths definitely the case’.

“And no-one shied away from it as well. I’ve probably heard more voices this week than I did in my first two weeks. Everyone is pretty intent on correcting a few things.

“From being an outsider previously, Ireland tend to react pretty positively to losses, don’t they? I don’t know if it’s because they’re not used to it or because the intent is we don’t go there again. I’d be very, very confident we’d get a good response on Friday.”

Walters spoke about how the coaching team reacted saying, “It’s interesting, it’s how quickly you can summarise and understand what went wrong. There’s a few clear things in Andy’s mind and the coaches’ minds. The job is pretty quick, we came in yesterday, we got started and that was getting to understand what didn’t work.

“They’ve covered a few different areas but it’s pretty clear what we have to get right to function and be at our best on Friday night. It’s only natural that there’s a bit of hurt, there’s no anger. It’s a group that doesn’t seem to be used to losing all that much.

“It’s probably an environment that’s been immediately down in the dressing room but as I understand Faz is pretty good at getting things back on track pretty quickly.”