England are set to rotate against Ireland (PA)For the players, it’s much harder to take a deflating defeat at the Principality Stadium - a venue where
winning means that little bit more. As Warren Gatland said afterwards, Saturday “felt like a proper test” as
the familiar hostile atmosphere ramped up the stakes. But a World Cup warm-up defeat will be quickly
forgotten if the benefits are seen in two months’ time when these two nations could feasibly meet again in
the quarter-finals.
“There’s a fair amount of experimentation,” said Farrell. “It’s not all guns blazing for everyone at the same
time. As it gets closer and closer, I think you’ll start seeing the best of everyone and people will start
showing what they are capable of come the World Cup.
“It’s important we keep building towards what is coming up, but at the same time it is a big Test match and
you want to get the result. It will be an exciting game.
“There’s plans in place. A lot of thought has gone into everything we do, behind the scenes, so that we build
up to the World Cup, but we can’t deny that we want to win every game we’re playing.”
But one area where England find themselves needing to improve - again - is with their discipline. It was an
area of concern in 2018 during their six-month rough patch that triggered what has since transpired to be a
large overhaul of the squad. This time around, those disciplinary issues don’t feel as deep-rooted as they
were back then, though it is something that will need to be addressed against Ireland or risk those lingering
questions from casting a shadow over the side when they go into the big pool games against Argentina and
France.
Maro Itoje believes England must learn their
lessons from the Wales defeat (Getty)“It felt like we made it difficult for ourselves at times,” said Maro Itoje. “We probably need to tidy up our
discipline. That’s probably the biggest thing because we were conceding penalties and we could not sustain