Andy Farrell has revealed his constant desire to embrace adversity traces back to his Wigan Warriors days - and a delayed trip across the Pennines.
In contrast to Joe Schmidt, his predecessor as Ireland boss, Farrell has welcomed chaos in the form of last minute injury withdrawals or buses arriving late to match venues, as was the case in Cardiff before this year's Six Nations opener.
The last time Schmidt brought Ireland to Murrayfield in the championship was in 2017 and the Kiwi was unhappy that Ireland's team bus was delayed by 15 minutes as the Scottish police escort took a roundabout route to the stadium and Ireland lost 27-22.
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Fast forward six years and, with Farrell at the helm, an eighth successive victory over the Scots would leave Ireland one home win against England away from only a fourth Grand Slam.
Farrell, 48, has remained calm through it all - as he has during Ireland's rise to number one in the world rankings.
“I think it’s probably through experience along the way," said the Lancastrian. "I’ve got a few examples.
"I just think it’s a mentality that you have to have because otherwise everything is just an excuse.
"Just because things are thrown at you and you’re a traditionalist and you’re superstitious in a way and ‘this is how it should be done’ and ‘this is always the way it’s been done so therefore that’s how we win', that’s wrong in my opinion.
"You’ve got to be better than that. Having a no-excuse mentality has to be good for the strength of character, growing the strength of character. That’s the way it has to be, in my opinion.
“It always has to be about the squad. And if you’re not coping then you’ve got to make your squad stronger. That’s it.
"Show me a game where everyone is fit. What do you do, feel sorry for yourself? That doesn’t get you nowhere because it’s never going to stop.
"Adversity is never going to stop. I remember all sorts of things happening going to Murrayfield - being late on the bus, still stuck behind the bagpipes, all sorts of things going on on the pitch.
"It’s all part of the occasion isn’t it? You’ve got to embrace all of that and relish it. It’s what top-level sport is all about."
And Farrell explained the origin of his coaching philosophy goes back to his ultra-successful playing days with Rugby League giants Wigan.
"For one game we were stuck on the motorway, on the M62, going over the Pennines there," he recalled.
"We had to get changed on the bus and we ran out 10 minutes before kick-off, had a warm-up on the bus, finished the warm-up on the field, didn’t even go into the changing rooms and won the game easily against a good Leeds side.
"It’s just mentality."
An IRFU review after the last Rugby World Cup deduced performance anxiety as the reason for yet another quarter-final exit.
There is clearly a stronger mindset among the players now and many of the squad credit performance coach Gary Keegan for that improvement. Keegan first came on board in 2020 on a part-time basis, but he now works in a full-time role around Ireland camps, training and matches.
Asked if he himself has benefited from Keegan's contribution, Farrell joked: "Well, if I didn’t he wouldn’t be here! Of course I have.
"He’s been great because obviously Gary has worked in all sorts of sports. He doesn’t need to know rugby 100% down to a tee technically, like we do, and he stays away from that.
"Gary came in for a couple of days at the start and the flow of the week, you always build something up to get to a point, and we felt that he was missing that.
"Since the Tour of New Zealand where he was in full-time, he has been in camp full-time ever since, and the continuity has been great.
"He’s fully on board with all the language etc and therefore the continuity is getting better and better. We’re growing in the right direction in that regard.”
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