Eddie O'Sullivan: Licence to thrill bonding Ireland's attack

Eddie O'Sullivan feels Ireland have found an impressive balance between structure and enterprise in attack but believes second-half issues that cropped up against Wales will need to be addressed before the upcoming showdown with France.

All in all, Ireland's start to the Guinness Six Nations could not have gone much better with a bonus-point win, largely secured during an early onslaught which left the Welsh reeling.

However, the Irish side did find themselves under pressure during much of the second half in Cardiff.

Speaking on RTÉ's Against The Head, former Ireland head coach O'Sullivan said the success in Farrell's evolution, which has underpinned a run of excellent results leading into a World Cup year, stems from improving upon one area of weakness from his predecessor's time.

"Everywhere you moved was to be choreographed to perfection," O'Sullivan said of the Joe Schmidt template which Farrell inherited.

"I think there's an element of that there but there is freedom as well now. And I think, to be fair, if you make an error, you make an error and move on. Whereas an error in Joe Schmidt's era seemed to be very harshly treated. So I think they're playing with that sense of balance in their game.

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"They know they've structure and they know they have to go and play. But there's a fair bit of latitude and we've got world class players now. If you look across the Irish XV, everyone are ballers. So that's a big plus for us and we're in a very good place in that respect."

O'Su