Farrell to assess 'energy levels' before making changes

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says he will wait and assess the "energy levels" of his squad before deciding whether to make wholesale changes against Argentina.

Farrell's side suffered their first home defeat since 2021 when they were beaten 23-13 by New Zealand in their opening Autumn Nations Series match at the Aviva Stadium on Friday.

And with Argentina coming to Dublin on Friday before games against Fiji and Australia, Farrell admits that he has lots to consider before reshuffling his pack.

"It's a tough month, four back-to-back games on the trot so we will see what the energy levels are like," he said.

"A lot of guys put a good shift in considering their training time never mind game time, so we'll see how bodies are when we're back in and see what the feeling is like."

Ireland had won their past 19 home games and had lost just once at Aviva Stadium since round one of the 2019 Six Nations, but they were deservedly beaten in a game where indiscipline and errors proved their undoing.

Farrell refused to pinpoint Ireland's lack of games as a reason for his side's shortcomings.

Ireland had not played since their summer tour of South Africa, with New Zealand coming into the game having played eight fixtures in that time.

"We've always prided ourselves on getting up to speed and being as good as we possibly can be first game up because that is the cards we are dealt with," Farrell added.

"It doesn't matter if you have had three training sessions and 12 minutes of games or seven consecutive games and 50 training sessions, you try to be your best and we weren't."

Even after a below-par first half display, Farrell explained that he was calm at half-time as opposed to angry to try to help Ireland analyse where they had been going wrong.

"I didn't [shout], you pick and choose your moments [to do so], there were a few things to fix," Farrell continued.

"Getting those points over of how to get back in the game and give them an understanding of why they were feeling like they were important, and we came out of the blocks in a different manner."

Farrell also conceded that Ireland will need to cut out handling errors to get back to winning ways against Argentina, who thrashed Italy on Saturday evening.

"We had a bit of overplaying too much - in those conditions the quality of pass wasn't where it needed to be to be accurate."