Farrell tells Ireland to relish dirty work

Ireland defence coach Farrell ranked Saturday's 22-27 defeat in Scotland among the most frustrating days of his tenure under boss Joe Schmidt.

He believes Ireland lost their defensive appetite as they conceded three tries in a lacklustre opening period at Murrayfield.

Now the British and Irish Lions assistant coach has demanded his players rediscover their defensive relish ahead of facing Italy in Rome on Saturday.

"Every single time we get an opportunity to defend, we should love it, and we didn't," Farrell said on Tuesday.

"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 want 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."

Agence France-Presse