Farrell open to making major addition to coaching team to correct Ireland’s ill-discipline

Farrell's Ireland received five cards against South Africa last month

With the likes of France and South Africa hiring former referees to help players with an understanding of the rules, Farrell has admitted that the IRFU are open-minded to doing similar.

Ireland’s ill-discipline was highlighted in the defeat by South Africa last month, with Farrell’s side shown five cards in a chaotic Test at the Aviva.

Farrell said after Wednesday’s World Cup draw: “Nothing is locked in. There’s all sorts of reviews that we’ve been having over the last couple of weeks and we’re always open-minded to do the right thing by the squad.

“I agree that from the autumn it’s certainly a little bit of a work-on.

“Obviously South Africa are a lot to do with that and we’ve seen that in other games that they’ve played as well.

“It isn’t just the discipline, it’s how you handle the pressure of the game within itself. It’s something that needs to continue to improve.”

Ireland’s World Cup draw

Ireland have been drawn against Scotland, Portugal and Uruguay in the Pool stages of the 2027 World Cup, with a potential quarter-final against Argentina and potential semi-final against England in the bracket.

But Farrell isn’t in the game of second-guessing how Ireland might progress in Australia. 

"You can try and second-guess it and think all different permutations are going to work out in a certain way, but we know that a World Cup always throws up these type of things, that's why we love it so much," he said.

"I suppose you're always looking at which side of the draw you could come out, but if you don't look after your own side of things first and foremost then things could slightly happen a little bit differently.

"But having said that, everyone else in our pool is 100% going to be thinking in the same way."