{"id":19459,"date":"2021-01-27T09:48:45","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T13:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=19459"},"modified":"2021-01-27T13:51:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T17:51:23","slug":"ireland-looking-for-improvement-to-compete-with-england-and-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=19459","title":{"rendered":"Ireland Looking For Improvement To Compete With England And France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Head coach Andy Farrell says Ireland aspire to move up the \u201cpecking order\u201d after admitting England and France are favorites for the Guinness Six Nations.<\/p>\n

Ireland were forced to settle for third place in the 2020 competition having lost to Eddie Jones\u2019 eventual winners at Twickenham in February and been beaten by Les Bleus in Paris at the end of October.<\/p>\n

Farrell, who has now had a full year in the hot seat, insists his side are not far behind the expected Championship frontrunners but acknowledges that improvements are required.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job as a head coach is to make the team as good as they possibly can be, to play to our potential,\u201d said Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a pecking order at this moment in time where two teams are going in as favorites and we aspire to be that. I suppose that comes from hard work and performing under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be back up there in that type of light come the end of this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell hopes to have Ireland in contention for glory when reigning champions England visit Dublin on the final weekend.<\/p>\n

Asked about the current gap between his side and their two main title rivals, the Englishman replied: \u201cWe\u2019re not far (behind) at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a couple of comments at the end of the autumn that we know where we\u2019re going and we know how far we are from being there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we made good strides and we\u2019re nearly at where we want to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is it now. The Six Nations is a fantastic competition and it\u2019s there to be won by a number of teams but to do that there are a few things we need to keep getting better at.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question has been dealing with the big games; you\u2019ve got to get through the first game, the second game to assess where you\u2019re at before you start talking about the last game, which is where we want to be to try and compete to win a competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland begin the tournament away to Wales on Sunday, February 7.<\/p>\n

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