Ringrose: You Always Feel Better Facing It Head On

With France and Ireland first out of the gate for a unique Thursday night fixture, the scheduling of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations’ opening weekend afforded the Irish players a couple of days at home following a frustrating night in Paris.

Those home comforts will extend to Saturday afternoon when they are back at the Aviva Stadium to host Italy, the impressive conquerors of Scotland in a rainsodden Rome, in a second round opener which kicks off at 2.10pm.

Whether they win or lose, staying on an even keel is always the best way forward for Andy Farrell’s men, with Ringrose doing so by ‘focusing on the process, focusing on trying to improve as much as possible, and focusing on being honest with each other’.

Taking on the feedback from the reviews constructively, the players always appreciate that the coaches ‘don’t sugarcoat anything and confront absolutely everything’, according to the 70-times capped centre who said: “It’s been tough. It is never nice to lose in a green shirt because of the work we’d all put in – the players, the staff.

“It was good in a way having the two days, the Thursday game, having the two extra days to reset, but then we’re all left with our thoughts for those two days as well.

“So, keen to get in and rip into the reviews as tough as they are. You know, always feel better for facing it head on.

“Faz knows we’re all hurting, and you can see the coaches, with all the work they’ve put in, are hurting too. Listen, he’s about resetting, regrouping, attacking the week, so that’s kind of what he’s been at.”

The early part of this match week is about learning the lessons from their disappointing start to the Championship – only Ireland’s seventh first round loss in 27 Six Nations seasons – and building a performance that will extend their winning run against the ever-improving Italians to 17 Tests.

Ringrose is as good a player as any to give an insight into the post-match review process in Ireland camp, as a noted member of the leadership group, the most experienced back in last week’s matchday 23, and a talismanic figure in both defence and attack who recently turned 31.

France dominated in the air last Thursday, winning a number of contestable kicks and breaking balls. Having done well in that aspect of the game against Australia as recently as November, it is an area Ireland will target for immediate improvement as well as being more clinical in the red zone.

“We have a team review and then we split into unit reviews,” explained Ringrose, speaking to Virgin Media Sport. “So, the backs were looking at areas of the game that were applicable to us, and equally the forwards, and then we try and join that up together.

“We’re always encouraged to come to the meetings with an opinion, come with a point of view, so kind of what it might look like, certainly for backs, is a point or question might be raised and (we) break into smaller groups and discuss it and feed points back and share.

“So everyone is kind of speaking a bit. I wasn’t in the forwards meeting but then in the team meeting, it’s joining that all up together. There were some things we were trying to get clarity on to hopefully improve when we’re in the opposition 22 to come away with points definitively.

“So there was an area like that we could have been better, there was some of the kicking game that the backs were speaking on in terms of catching or receiving, and chasing kicks.

“Yeah, plenty of work-ons that we’re going to focus on this week and do our best to get right on Saturday afternoon.”

The match statistics from the clash with France were very much in the hosts’ favour, although Ireland did manage to have a higher percentage of rucks won (95.6%) and rucks between 0-3 seconds (62.8%), and an almost unblemished set-piece return.

The one that stood out on the negative side was missed tackles – Ireland made 83.4% of their tackles but had 35 misses. Notably, 28 of their tackles allowed French offloads, one tackle resulted in a penalty conceded, and les Bleus gained four penalties when Farrell’s side were defending.

Ringrose agreed that those missed tackles and defensive errors left them badly exposed against an in-form French attack, which he also praised for the class they showed in carving through for tries from Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who bagged a quicksilver brace, Matthieu Jalibert, Charles Ollivon, and Théo Attissogbe.

“I mean statistics, you try and sift through what really matters to say my position or anyone’s, trying to do that,” admitted the Leinster ace.

“I don’t know what the (missed tackle) stats exactly were, but they sound high and there was that feeling when you’re slipping off tackles against their attacking side, or their ability to keep the ball alive and run through the line. Yeah, it’ll cost you and that was pretty evident.

“I think France executed their strengths unbelievably well. Their counter attack transition game they nailed, scored tries off that, which felt like a punch in the face that’s happened so quick.

“And that’s the quality of their play. I mean we had spoken and tried to prepare for it but it just shows their strength to be able to deliver on it. They delivered on what they were aiming on coming into the game, and we didn’t.”

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