Andy Farrell knows Ireland aren’t World Cup contenders, but he’s working on it

For Ireland to be genuine contenders at the next World Cup, as at the last one, they need to again build momentum and belief. That starts this week, for as Andy Farrell conceded in the lead-up to Friday’s Nations Championship meeting with Argentina at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 8.10pm), this team is not in a position to call themselves World Cup contenders.

At this point four years ago, Ireland had returned from a historic 2-1 series win in New Zealand and would extend their winning run to 17 Tests before that quarter-final loss to the All Blacks at the World Cup.