Andy Farrell defends ‘world-class’ Ireland scrum despite England struggles

Andy Farrell admits there will be a harsh review of Ireland’s stuttering win over 14-man England but insists he has no concerns about his side’s “world-class” scrum.

Ireland kept themselves in Guinness Six Nations title contention on Saturday evening by battling to a 32-15 bonus-point victory over depleted opponents at a raucous Twickenham.

Eddie Jones’ hosts played almost the entire game a man down following Charlie Ewels’ second-minute red card but, even with wing Jack Nowell filling in at flanker, they dominated the battle of the packs.

England’s scrum engineered six penalties, leaving Jones questioning why referee Mathieu Raynal did not penalise the visitors’ misfiring forwards more harshly by reaching for a yellow card.

Ireland head coach Farrell, who selected veteran loosehead Cian Healy and rookie hooker Dan Sheehan alongside tighthead Tadhg Furlong in his front row due to the injury absences of Andrew Porter and Ronan Kelleher, brushed off doubts about the set-piece.

“Look, I’m not concerned about it at all,” said the Englishman.

“We all know we’ve got a world-class scrum, we know the personnel we’ve got.

“It’s going to be great learning, isn’t it? For the likes of Dan and the rest of the pack, they were searching for some answers, asking the questions and I’m not sure if they got the answers or not.

“We’ll look at ourselves first and liaise with the right channels and make sure we get to the bottom of it.

“I think we all know that we’ve got a good scrum. England found a way and congratulations to them.”

He added: “Getting the learnings from a defeat is one thing. But getting the learnings from a bonus-point win and being harsh on yourself, being honest, is what we always do.

“The review will be the same, the