Andy Farrell insists he will get a reaction out of his Ireland squad, as they look to get their Autumn Nations Series campaign back on track against Argentina on Friday.

The 23-13 defeat to New Zealand at Aviva Stadium was a first at home since February 2021, ending a 19-game winning run in Dublin, but overall it’s a third defeat in their last five games, spanning back to their loss against England in March.

There have been common threads across each of those defeats; poor discipline, a creaking setpiece and an attack that has looked somewhat jaded and predictable.

With three games still to come this month, there is more than enough time for Ireland to find their flow again, and Farrell believes their showing against the All Blacks hasn’t been a true reflection of them as a team.

“You don’t become a bad side in one game do you?” the Ireland coach said, when asked if he was worried about the way his team are trending.

“Not at all [worried], I said I was excited about the game, about how we prepared and how we trained, and sometimes – most of the time for us – that transfers. Today it didn’t.

While Farrell (above) is right in saying a good team doesn’t become bad overnight, there is enough evidence in 2024 to show that Ireland are in the midst of a delayed World Cup hangover.

While they demolished France and Italy to start the Six Nations, they’ve gone through the motions since, at times looking excellent but at other times below average.

Composure has been an issue. Ireland’s recent trend of ill-discipline continued against New Zealand on Friday, losing the penalty count 13-5, and giving up 18 points through penalties alone, and the Ireland head coach says his side contributed to their own downfall by compounding errors with more errors.

Farrell said: “Through the good times and the bad times, it’s something that we’ve been pretty good at, to keep managing our way through the game but I thought we compounded too much stuff and therefore our mood wasn’t what it should have been.”

There’s no time to stew on the defeat, with Argentina in town this week, and Los Pumas come into the game on a high after an impressive Rugby Championship campaign was followed up with a 50-18 win against Italy on Saturday in Udine.

“I think they play some really good rugby. Obviously we’ve been watching a lot of them lately through the Championship, so interested to see how they carry on the form but obviously they have took their game to another level and had some big wins, and they’ll certainly be coming here looking for a victory.

“So hence why we have to get back on the horse.

“Good teams bounce back don’t they? So we’ll see what we’re about.

“We’ve tended to do that in the past. It’s amazing isn’t it, because we’re the ones that’s brought the expectation, so we’ve got to get back on the horse and build it again.

“A bit of character that we know we’ve got, we know what we’re about. After any type of defeat you want to see a reaction and we’ll need a reaction because we’ve got a good team coming here next week.”

Farrell got a reaction from his side in July after the first Test defeat to the Springboks in Durban, and the Ireland coach was open at the time about how he went hard on his players in the days following that loss.

While he was clearly frustrated when speaking to the media late on Friday night, he says the post-match debrief had been quite matter of fact between the four changing room walls.

And he’s yet to decided whether to be good cop or bad cop in the next few days.

“I don’t know, I’ll see how I feel and the mood, but no, sometimes you need a bit of help to try and pick the mood up,” he said.

“Sometimes a bo*****ing is when you get a reaction. Sometimes you need to nurture as well.”