Grand Slam winner Stephen Ferris says "questions will be asked" about Andy Farrell's future as Ireland coach if the team's form does not improve soon.

"International rugby is very cut throat," Ferris told BBC Radio Foyle.

"If Ireland have another couple of rocky weeks, there will be questions asked and rightly so. The head coaches are getting paid a lot of money."

"It's going to be an interesting couple of months ahead, " added the former Ireland flanker.

"Some of the other countries used the Autumn Nations Cup as a bit of experiment to see where they were. Ireland dabbled a little bit in that but we're sort of back to the drawing board."

'Ireland never looked very dangerous'

On the scoreboard, Ireland suffered a narrow 15-13 home defeat by the Grand Slam-chasing French on Sunday but Ferris says the gap between the teams was much bigger than the result suggested.

"There wasn't any particular moment in that match where Ireland looked very dangerous.

"There was a (lucky) bounce of a ball for (Ronan) Kelleher's try off a French lineout.

"Unfortunately for Ireland they just didn't show enough enterprise and I think with the Andy Farrell blueprint, there's question marks yet again of where is this Ireland team?

"Chatting to former players and former coaches over the last couple of weekends, we just don't know what kind of direction Ireland are looking to go.

"The scoreline yesterday - yes it was a couple of points and Ireland had a lot of possession - but those last two or three minutes of the game summed it all up with Ireland going backwards.

"There's a lot to work on over the next couple of weeks and a trip to Italy is now looking a little bit daunting."

'I don't see any improvement from Schmidt era'

Ferris says he is struggling to see any revival in Ireland's fortunes since Joe Schmidt's reign ended with a hugely disappointing World Cup in 2019.

"I don't see an improvement from after he took over the reins from Joe Schmidt.

"There was all this talk of a more free-flowing offloading game, playing more heads up, letting the guys have free rein instead of that pragmatic approach of trying to bully the opposition into making mistakes and then capitalising on them. We're not seeing that."

Like Farrell, Ferris has no complaint over the effort of the Ireland players but he believes there has been a dearth of "quality" over the past two weekends.

"At the minute it's a tough place to be and the players need to look at themselves and the coaching staff need to look at themselves and try and come together."

Another former Ireland international David Humphreys told BBC Sport Northern Ireland after Sunday's defeat that Farrell will have to pick his strongest possible for the game in Rome on 27 February but Ferris believes there is an argument for "giving young guys an opportunity".

"Look at France over the last couple of seasons. They really are building nicely towards the 2023 World Cup and I think every Irish fan would really love to see Ireland compete really strongly in the World Cup rather than win maybe a game or two in this Six Nations."