The November international series has come to an end for Ireland and looking back it is easy to say that the set of results are among Ireland’s most impressive ever.

A ‘gimme’ victory over Canada, a first ever victory over New Zealand and another hard fought win over Australia leaves Ireland sitting confidently among the All Blacks, England and Australia as the elite of world rugby.

The nature of Ireland’s victories and the hard fought defeat to New Zealand in their second November test are about more than just the results. Numerous new caps and the emergence of the next generation of Irish warriors sees Joe Schmidt in the enviable position of being able to field two world-class test sides, as shown in their all new side that brushed aside Canada.

All round, there is a feel good atmosphere among fans and pundits. While there are concerns over the long-term health of Johnny Sexton and the injury to Jordi Murphy, the international campaign has ended on a real high for Ireland.

Despite this, former Ireland head coach Eddie O’Sullivan has managed to drag us all back down from the lofty heights in which we have been elevated to this past month.

Speaking on Newstalk’s ‘Off The Ball’ show on Monday night, O’Sullivan was frank and blunt in his assessment of Ireland’s new defence coach Andy Farrell.

The former England international joined the Ireland set-up following the Six Nations and has been widely well received.

O’Sullivan, however, was pained to point out that during the November series, Ireland conceded three tries in each of their four games, something of real concern to the former head coach.

“I think the big take from our defence during the autumn has been (that) our discipline has been extraordinary. “The idea we have conceded a grand total of eleven penalties in three matches, and the opposition have conceded forty-one, is phenomenal. But our defence per se is not particularly good…our tackle rate is just barely over 80% over the three matches, that’s really worrying. Plus the fact teams are scoring in excess of three tries a match. “We’re measuring ourselves against Australia and New Zealand but they’re scoring in excess of three tries a match against us, with 40% possession and 40% territory. “What if we go into the Six Nations and teams get 50% possession and 50% territory and they don’t give up 15 penalties. So they’ve a lot more ball, a lot more territory. And how do we score two to three tries a game with less possession and less territory? “We’re still making poor decisions defensively at times. We’re not making poor decisions in terms of discipline, we’re incredibly disciplined. And that’s fantastic. If you know you’re not going to give up five or six penalties a game that’s a huge advantage defensively in particular. “But if you look at Kuridrani’s try at the weekend, it’s a schoolboy error. We had five defenders on the left hand side of the ruck against two Australian attackers and they had a walk-in…that’s pretty poor. “We gave up three tries in eleven minutes against New Zealand, gave up four last week, three this week. We’re leaking tries against teams with 40% possession. I don’t think that’s great defence by any metric.”

So there you go. O’Sullivan is no fan of Farrell’s impact thus far and to be fair, he does make a worrying point.

Gary Brennan, Pundit Arena

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