But right now it is hard to imagine the former rugby league Man of Steel won’t be at or near the top of any RFU wishlist, along with Premiership talents like Rob Baxter and Mark McCall, experienced international coaches like Warren Gatland and Rassie Erasmus, and current or previous assistants like Richard Cockerill or Steve Borthwick. Ireland must travel down to New Zealand for three Tests next summer where their progress will really be tested. Still time for Ireland to go off the boil and for Farrell’s star to wane. There are still two years to go until France 2023. “Fair play to the coaches,” Jack Conan said afterwards. But the players are clearly buying into it. "We're getting pretty good at staying in the moment, being nice and controlled, trusting ourselves,” Farrell said. But they look and sound more relaxed under Farrell less stifled, less anxious that every little mistake is going to be analysed to death.įarrell made some interesting remarks after Saturday’s victory about Ireland’s mental preparations, noting the impact of high-performance coach Gary Keegan who he drafted in 12 months ago. The New Zealander’s fingerprints are still all over this Ireland squad, and he deserves his share of the credit.
But he is now suggesting he learnt the lessons - both good and bad - of Schmidt’s era.
And back row Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan.Behind the scrum, the way in which players such as Hugo Keenan, Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe have bedded in, playing with a confidence and accuracy that belies their experience, suggests that Farrell is striking the right balance between coaching his players and trusting them to express themselves.įarrell may have made a slow start to his Ireland tenure, by his own admission having an “average” first year. As are locks Iain Henderson and James Ryan. Ireland’s starting front row last Saturday of Andrew Porter (now playing at loosehead and arguably doing it better than anyone else in the world right now), Ronan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong are all under 30. While in the past Ireland have peaked too early in World Cup terms, the age profile of this squad suggests their best years lie ahead of them. And the exciting thing for Ireland fans is that there is still plenty of room for improvement. This latest one was Ireland’s best yet, their most dominant. Together with the victories he was involved in as part of England and British & Irish Lions squads, that is quite the record he has against world rugby’s equivalent of the Harlem Globe Trotters. And Farrell was involved in all three of them, twice as assistant to Joe Schmidt and now as Ireland head coach in his own right. Ireland’s latest stunning victory over the All Blacks on Saturday was their third in five years against the world’s best team. One newspaper columnist accused Farrell of being one of union's “league contingent” who “try to solve union problems by looking at them through the prism of their own competitive experience in the 13-man game”.Īlong with fellow assistants Mike Catt and Graham Rowntree, Farrell was summarily dismissed when Eddie Jones took over in December of 2015, and the truth is few tears were shed.įast forward six years and the suits at the RFU must surely be weighing up whether they are going to have to make what would have to be a very delicate approach for their former employee to take over once Jones stands down after the 2023 World Cup.įarrell’s rebirth across the Irish Sea is gathering pace. In the bitter inquest that followed, Farrell, who was Stuart Lancaster’s attack coach at the time, was blamed for everything from England’s stuttering attack, to being too dominant a voice in selection, particularly where fellow cross-code star Sam Burgess was concerned. When England crashed out of their home Rugby World Cup in the pool stages back in 2015 - the first host nation to achieve that particular feat - not many would have predicted that six years on Andy Farrell would be leading the list of frontrunners to come back in as head coach.
0 kommentar(er)
