The key issues for Ireland after autumn series

Ireland ended 2024 with eight wins and three defeats

As the Autumn Nations Series - and indeed 2024's entire slate of Test rugby - moves into the rearview mirror, Ireland can approach 2025 with both optimism and consternation.

The optimism stems simply from 2024 being a good year: a Six Nations title win, a victory over the Springboks in South Africa and three from four in the autumn campaign - the latter an impressive feat given Ireland were nowhere near their best throughout November.

But even if they had lit up the autumn with a string of stunning displays, next year was always going to bring a sense of trepidation given Andy Farrell's absence.

With Farrell on British and Irish Lions duty throughout the Six Nations and next summer, defence coach Simon Easterby will step up to take interim charge.

It is a huge opportunity for Easterby, who has been on the Ireland coaching ticket since 2014, but there are certainly issues for him to address.

Fix the error count

Ireland only had themselves to blame for making such hard work of Saturday's win.

Handling errors, especially in a wayward first-half display, were an issue as they continually failed to convert pressure inside the Australia 22 into points.

"We spilled enough ball and made enough errors in the first half to lose two matches," Farrell remarked.

It has been a theme all month. Against New Zealand, there were 21 handling errors with the All Blacks nearly flawless in that regard. With a combined 35 in the Argentina and Fiji games, it is an area that requires intense focus when Ireland next gather in the build-up to the Six Nations.

Set-piece issues returned on Saturday, too. Ireland lost four line-outs, ridding themselves of a key attacking platform. Line-out issues were a major theme throughout last year's World Cup.

A year on, there remains a heavy workload for forwards coach Paul O'Connell with lock Joe McCarthy admitting there is "definitely improvement to be had".

"Today was a bit crazy, there were 24 line-outs, so I think we were on the run trying to make up some new line-outs and we had gone through all of them about twice," said McCarthy, who started all 11 of Ireland's games this year.

"We've got good success, we had good mauls throughout the year, focused very much on good drills and things like that, but we probably slipped away from that in a few games, leaking a few line-outs, a few sloppy bits.

"But I think it's been relatively strong enough."

The fly-half question

Yes, it rumbles on. Munster's Jack Crowley has been Ireland first-choice fly-half for much of 2024, but with Sam Prendergast starting the last two games, the tussle for the number 10 jersey will again be a major point of focus by the time the Six Nations rolls around.

Sticking with 21-year-old Prendergast for the Australia game was Farrell's biggest selection call this autumn.

The Leinster youngster displayed a lovely array of kicking and defended courageously at times, but he was not without errors, leading Joe Schmidt to observe that his Wallabies made him look uncharacteristically "flustered" at times.

With Crowley's effective cameo off the bench attracting Farrell's praise after the match, the pecking order is far from clear-cut.

Needless to say, their club form over the next two months will be studied intensely by the Ireland coaches before their Six Nations hat-trick bid.

New blood and old guard

Prendergast was one of four Ireland debutants in November, along with Tom Clarkson, Gus McCarthy and Cormac Izuchukwu.

For Farrell, their emergence is a key takeaway from the series.

"The story of the autumn for us is we've four new debutants, we've four new members of staff who have settled in really well and we know where we're going," he said.

"The future is bright for me because we have the right people on the bus so we're excited about that."

Prendergast is vying for the 10 jersey, Tom Clarkson clearly has a future at tighthead prop, Izuchukwu offers versatility as a second row or loose forward and hooker McCarthy has already bagged two tries.

It bodes well for a squad who could soon be without three of its most experienced players. Long-serving loosehead Cian Healy, who became Ireland's most-capped player when he came off the bench to collect his 134th cap and move past Brian O'Driscoll, is 37 and out of contract at the end of the season.

Also out of contract at the end of the season are Conor Murray and Peter O'Mahony, who played bit-part roles in the autumn series.

All three may feature in the Six Nations but with four debutants in November and possibly more to come, the changing of the guard will continue apace.

Lessons from the All Blacks

Farrell says Ireland must learn from their All Blacks defeat with the England game starting the next block of fixtures

The opening autumn Test against New Zealand was the scalp Ireland craved the most. Ultimately, it was their most disappointing performance of 2024, a Test-hardened All Blacks outfit making Farrell's side look decidedly ordinary.

It clearly still stings, and with England - who wrecked this year's back-to-back Grand Slam bid - at home first up in the Six Nations, Farrell's message is clear: hit the ground running or more pain awaits.

He said: "We pride ourselves on being good first up and I know that the southern hemisphere teams are going to come in battled hardened and Test-match fit but when you're coming into a top game like that New Zealand game, we let ourselves down in that regard.

"The first game that Ireland's got in the Six Nations is England here so they've got to be better coming in. It's something that we've been really good at in the past but you need to keep checking on all these things."

Ireland set the tone beautifully for 2024 with a thrilling win over France in Marseille. Producing a similar result at home to England could be even more significant as they prepare to navigate the majority of the next year without their leader.

Not that Farrell is worried about Easterby and co.

"It's certainly nothing to do with me why we just win trophies," he said.

"We've always done it together and the coaching staff that we've got are second to done so that's not changing. I'd expect us to kick on."