Well, Andy Farrell certainly has drawn heavily on those he knows best by dipping unashamedly into the Irish coaching ticket for this summer’s British & Irish Lions expedition to Australia.
Farrell’s quintet of assistant coaches features three of his Ireland lieutenants in Simon Easterby, Andrew Goodman and John Fogarty, along with Scotland’s John Dalziel and England’s Richard Wigglesworth.
Including Farrell himself, this means that four of the six-strong coaching ticket, or 66 per cent, will come from the IRFU’s payroll.
Have the Lions left Ireland in the lurch?
This is uncharted and unprecedented territory. It feels almost unnerving. We’re not used to this, namely the British & Irish Lions with Ireland in any way the top dogs. Farrell has also enlisted Vinny Hammond as video analyst and Aled Walters as strength & conditioning coach. Ah stop the lights Andy!
It almost seems a tad brazen, or at any rate a little cheeky. And if the Lions lose the Test series, Farrell and Irish rugby will cop it from the predominantly English-infused Lions’ media pack.
But Warren Gatland once said that if he learned one thing as a head coach, it was to do things his way. In other words, if he was to perish, he’d do so on his own sword. One would venture that as he has plotted and planned for what might be his only stint as Lions’ head coach, Farrell also decided he was not going to die wondering. He would do things his way.
When Farrell was defence coach with the Lions on the 2017 tour to New Zealand, he was enlisted from the Irish coaching ticket, but not so in 2013, as he was then working with England. So, save for Farrell in 2017, the last Irish coach of any kind to be part of the Lions’ coaching ticket was Eddie O’Sullivan on the expedition to New Zealand in 2005 – ie five Lions tours and two decades ago.
By contrast, with Gatland as head coach on the last three Lions tours, Wales provided three of the coaching ticket in 2021, 2017 and 2013, and four served under Ian McGeechan to South Africa in 2009, namely Gatland, Rob Howley, Shaun Edwards and Neil Jenkins, as well as England’s then scrum coach, Graham Rowntree,
This time, there is no Wales representation on the coaching ticket for the first time since 1997. However, after another Six Nations wooden spoon was sealed when England’s last day thrashing in Cardiff condemned them to a 17th straight defeat, they can hardly have any complaints. And they don’t.
But maybe it’s time Irish rugby shed its historical inferiority complex in the context of the Lions. In the last four years, ie this Lions’ ‘cycle’, the 2025 Six Nations was the first time England finished above Ireland. And that was by one point and despite Ireland fairly decisively beating England at the Aviva Stadium on the opening weekend.
Furthermore, Ireland had previously finished above England, Scotland and Wales in each of the three previous Six Nations campaigns. In this Lions cycle, Ireland have won two Six Nations titles (including a Grand Slam) which is two more than England, Scotland and Wales combined.
Since the last Lions tour, Ireland have won a series away to New Zealand and drawn a series away to South Africa, which is more than England, Scotland and Wales combined have achieved in the southern hemisphere. Ireland have consistently been the highest placed of the four “home” countries in the world rankings over this time too.
So, when some question the potential damage this might do to Irish rugby, the argument certainly cuts both ways. Was having no coaching experience of Lions tours since 2005 of benefit to Irish rugby?
Similarly, while Farrell’s absence may or may not have hindered Ireland in this year’s Six Nations, in all fairness he had to take a backward step, and besides this Lions experience will surely make him a better coach. And ditto Goodman, Easterby and Fogarty.
The knock-on effect is that Paul O’Connell ought also to benefit from heading the Irish adventure to Georgia and Portugal, and the same should apply to whoever is part of his team, be it Mike Prendergast, Jimmy Duffy, Sean O’Brien and, maybe, Johnny Sexton. Imagine the next generation embarking upon a mini tour with that ticket?
They’ll all be better coaches for the experience as well, and with no disrespect to Georgia and Portugal, it might be different if Ireland were undertaking a two or three-match tour to, say, Argentina. Although then again, maybe not.
In this week’s fallout, it could be that Farrell choosing Maro Itoje as Lions captain might apply some English balm to the Oz odyssey. His candidature for the captaincy has been heavily supported by the English media, and that could well come to pass. But if Farrell’s choice of coaches told us anything, it is that he is own man who backs his judgment over optics.
Yep, it’s time to shed that inferiority complex.
