Andy Farrell ‘takes full responsibility' for Lions loss as Argentina coach reveals impact of unusual Dublin weather
ANDY FARRELL says he and his players need to do better as the Lions were tamed by Argentina.
Ahead of their departure for
Australia
, the Lions bounced back from conceding 10 points in the final minute of the first half with two second-half tries only to be
2
The Lions lost to Argentina in Dublin
Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
2
Andy Farrell took full responsibility for the defeat
Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
And
On his own performance, Farrell said: 'Obviously not good enough. I always take full responsibility, that's my role.
'It doesn't matter what department, I'm in charge of the job lot so it obviously wasn't good enough and I need to do better.
'We made it a tough game, didn't we?
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'Obviously the first and appropriate thing to say is congratulations to
'They capitalised very well on the back of quite a few errors from us. Congratulations to them. I'm sure that's a huge moment in Argentinean
history
.
'But the whole story of the game is that we compounded too many errors. We need to do better than that.
'The Lions players, good players coming together, of course we ask a lot of them, and maybe we put too much pressure on the side because it certainly looked like we were a little bit disconnected at times.
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'Look, we'll
review
, and then we need to make sure that we get something positive from that because it's all about how we move forward.
'You can single out one thing but it's not just one thing, it's a compounding of quite a few bits. The amount of balls that we threw blindly, either to the opposition or the floor, is probably a stand-out.
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'If you combine that with the kicking game and the aerial battle and what is disappointing is those scraps on the floor from that type of battle, it always seemed to go to
Argentina
so there's a bit of fight and hunger from them that we can't accept.
'Then you combine stuff at the breakdown, the lineout or whatever, and it's too much.
'We're not sugar-coating anything because we need to be honest because if we're not honest how do we gain trust with each other. We have to say it as it is.
'We expected to do better but we're at where we're at and we need to deal with that.'
'HATE THAT'
Farrell bristled at the description of the first game being 'out of the way' ahead of their departure for Down Under.
He said: 'I hate that, 'out of the way'. Honestly, losing hurts, especially in this
jersey
. So we need to find the solutions pretty quickly.
'Effectively you've got two sets of players that are on completely different timescales but that's the nature of what's ahead of us as well.
'You've got to deal with the jetlag first and foremost but then
the games
come thick and fast. It's never going to be what we're used to. I think the last couple of weeks sets us in good stead in terms of the rhythm, or the lack of it.'
Despite the disappointment, Farrell said some players had impressed, with props
work
in the scrum and defensively.
He said: 'I thought they had Argentina under the pump at times.
'I think some players will have done themselves proud and they will be hurting for the team because they're all team players. Some people will be happy and some people won't and will be dying to get another chance out there.'
Argentina coach
Felipe
Contepomi was chuffed with the win, particularly because his squad had limited time together, and reckoned the unusually hot
Dublin
weather
helped them.
The former Leinster out-half said: We had only two training sessions, and we had a lot of newcomers. I think the guys were fantastic.
'We had a really good week in training but also in believing. The weather helped a lot because the guys could drink mate on the terrace in St Helen's, in the Radisson Blu.
'It's an invitational game and the last time was 20 years ago and we just couldn't beat them. We drew.
'Coming here 20 years later I think it's incredible. We don't know if we'll ever again be invited or not to play a game like that but definitely for everyone who has been involved in this week it will be memorable.
'Sometimes you need to understand what motivates the other team, to understand how special it is.
'For us to play against the best of the best in these islands it's nearly a dream, putting in that performance after two days, for me I take my hat off to the boys.'
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