Wednesday 8 February 2017 07:38, UK
Andy Farrell says Ireland need to learn to "love defending" if they are to get their Six Nations campaign back on track.
Having memorably beaten the All Blacks last year, the Irish were seen as possible contenders for the 2017 Six Nations crown.
However, much to the displeasure of defence coach Farrell, they fell 21-5 behind to Scotland in their tournament opener on Saturday before eventually losing 27-22 after a valiant fightback.
Next up is a clash with Italy in Rome on Saturday and Farrell wants an improvement on last weekend's display.
"Every single time we get an opportunity to defend, we should love it, and we didn't," said Farrell.
"So our mood was affected, our appetite was affected a little bit, and we got it back in the second half.
"We'll work on the reasons why. I'm more concerned about the mood at the time, of our lack of wanting to get back in the line and enjoy our defence.
"Our mood was completely different in the first half compared to what it was in the second half and I think we let things a little bit affect us and we shouldn't do that defensively. We should love defending."
To illustrate his point, Farrell revealed that Scotland boss Vern Cotter suggested Ireland had altered their defensive system mid-match, when that had not in fact been the case.
"I think the upsetting thing for myself after the game was that Vern Cotter came up to me and said, 'Jeez, you changed your defence in the second half, didn't you?'," Farrell added.
"And we didn't. We didn't. So now you can understand why I'm talking about the mood.
"We need to enjoy our defence this weekend against Italy, we need to get the ball back because, if we don't, the Italians are going to be hard work for us.
"It's a tough old match over there and we've seen plenty of games where teams have come unstuck, so you have to be at your best in this championship against absolutely everyone.
"We know what the Italians can do, and so we've got to apply ourselves on the Italians and we need to get that appetite consistently higher this weekend."
