One of the anomalies baked into the rugby cake on this side of the world is the willingness of the IRFU to allow head coach Andy Farrell to take off on sabbatical for the Six Nations and Ireland’s summer tour. Farrell starts in his role this month and will work solely with the Lions until the conclusion of the 2025 tour of Australia next August.
The 2023 World Rugby Coach of the Year, who led Ireland to the Six Nations this year and a Grand Slam last year, was unveiled as the new Lions head coach for next year’s tour last January.
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Farrell takes over from Warren Gatland, who had held the job for three tours in 2013, 2017 and 2021. Far from inexperienced, Farrell was an assistant to Gatland on the 2013 tour to Australia (a 2-1 Test series win) and four years later fulfilled the same role when the Lions drew the series (1-1) in New Zealand.
His Ireland commitments kept him from travelling to South Africa in 2021. But not this time. Setting aside allegiances may be unusual in team sport, but it’s now commonplace every four years for Lions tours.
Former Irish flanker Simon Easterby and his team take over from Farrell, but the question is whether Farrell going to the Lions will damage Ireland’s chances of retaining their Six Nations title.
The IRFU has always highlighted the importance of the Six Nations because it is the cash cow that funds everything else in Irish rugby. The assumption is Farrell’s absence is not going to hurt Ireland’s chances of defending the title the team won earlier this year.
The home unions own the Dublin-based company that operate the Lions franchise, which last time out in 2021 made a profit of €9.6 million despite the pandemic and three Test matches in South Africa being played without spectators in the stadiums. They all have skin in the game.
Going back over 25 years to 1998, Graham Henry left New Zealand to coach Wales. He was appointed coach for the 2001 Lions tour to Australia, becoming the first Lions coach from outside the Home Nations. Henry did not take a sabbatical and coached Wales during the 2001 Six Nations.
England’s Clive Woodward was then appointed the Lions coach in 2004 for the 2005 tour to New Zealand.
Woodward’s contract with England was due to run until 2007, however, following the retirement of key players such as Lawrence Dallaglio and Martin Johnson, and finishing third in the Six Nations after World Cup success, he announced in September 2004 that he would be quitting as England coach.
Having resigned, no sabbatical from England was required for the Lions tour the following year.
For the 2009 tour to South Africa, Ian McGeechan was appointed as coach for a fourth time, having already served the Lions in 1987, 1993 and 1997. However, the Scot was coming at the job not as a national coach like Farrell but as director of rugby at Wasps. The club’s only issue was a possible Premiership final date clash, but they cleared the way.
Gatland had been an assistant with McGeechan and was coaching Wales at the time. Wales had won the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2012 and Gatland headed the Lions Tour to Australia in 2013, having signed a 10-month contract that involved taking a sabbatical from the Welsh job.
Former Welsh scrumhalf Rob Howley took over as caretaker coach for that year’s Six Nations. Without Gatland, Wales didn’t repeat the Grand Slam, but they won the 2013 championship.
Four years later in 2017 for the tour to New Zealand, Gatland again signed a contract that called for a 10-month sabbatical and again Howley stepped in for the Six Nations. That year Wales came fifth in the championship, having come second to England the previous year with Gatland as coach.
A third stint for Gatland arrived in 2021 for the tour to South Africa, by which time he had left Wales and agreed a four-year deal with New Zealand side Chiefs from 2019. The contract also included a sabbatical for the Lions. However, it didn’t work out with the Chiefs and in 2022, Gatland left to return to coaching Wales.
It was Gatland who set the tone for taking time out from coaching national sides to prepare for a Lions tour and on the two occasions he was coach of Wales, the team did not do as well when he was on sabbatical with the Lions.
However, two tournaments involving Gatland is hardly a slam dunk either way, and Farrell is satisfied he has left a strong coaching team in charge. In a quirky year, Ireland play England at the Aviva Stadium in the first 2025 Six Nations match. The outcome there maybe an early indicator of whether a sabbatical for the head coach is a good or bad idea for the team.
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