We haven’t played our best rugby yet – Farrell

Ireland coach Andy Farrell said his team have not played their best rugby yet, despite booking their place in the quarterfinals with a convincing fourth pool win of the tournament on Saturday.

The Irish ruthlessly took their chances in the 36-14 win over Scotland to set up a last-eight meeting with three-time champions New Zealand back at Stade de France next Saturday.

“I don’t think and neither does the team think that we have played our best rugby,” Farrell said. “We know where we want to go and what we want to achieve.

“Will we ever get there? I don’t know. But it’s days like next week that are coming where we need to find out a bit more about ourselves and these lads are more than willing to do that.”

Ireland, who have never won a knockout match at a World Cup, dismantled a Scottish side also looking to advance to the knockout stages, scoring early and scoring often to extend their winning streak to 17 straight games.

They had to get through a period of sustained pressure from the Scots after their first try, however, and Farrell thought the way they held firm and then struck back at the other end was the key to the match.

“When you see how we were clinical and add how we were defending, it is a shot in the arm for us and a hammer blow for the other team,” Farrell said.

There were a few injuries to concern Farrell, however. Both the wingers Mack Hansen and James Lowe were forced off the pitch and lock James Ryan needed attention.

“Mack went off with a HIA (head injury assessment) and felt his calf straight away so we got him off,” he said. “James Ryan has a bit of a knock on his wrist that we need to assess more, so we will see how he is.

“James Lowe got a bang in the eye, it shut and he couldn’t see much, his vision was coming back towards the end of the game, which is good.”

The crowd of vocal Irish supporters outnumbered the Scottish fans considerably, creating a raucous atmosphere as they had at the same stadium when Ireland beat South Africa earlier in the pool stage.

“We play for them; I was talking about it earlier when we were in the dressing room,” Farrell said.

“It’s more important than people think. When we get back to training on Monday, we’ll be doing it for them.”

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend hailed his team’s spirit and rued not making their early pressure count, as their World Cup campaign ended in the pool stage for the second straight tournament.

Scotland had hoped to defy the odds by beating the world’s top ranked team to book a place in the quarterfinals, but after falling behind to an early Irish try they opted three times to spurn kicks at goal and go for a lineout. The decision was costly.

“I was proud of the effort, intent and to not let the score become a bigger one,” Townsend told a news conference.

“Three points wouldn’t have helped us. We had a couple of occasions when we didn’t turn that pressure into five or seven points, which we would have needed given the way Ireland were playing.

“They are the best in the world for a reason. From an attacking perspective when you give them entries into the 22 they come away with points,” Townsend said, adding that the Irish were probably favourites to win the tournament.

– SuperSport.com