A MEANS TO AN END
Real value of Lions gig is how it helps Farrell beat World Cup hex
IT has gone down as one of the great rugby muggings. Back in 2011, in Wellington, Ireland ran out as favourites for their World Cup quarter-final showdown with Warren Gatland’s Wales.
Declan Kidney’s side had cruised through their pool, the highlight being the ruthless dismantling of a very good Australia side (back when you could actually say that about the Wallabies) and they were widely expected to reach a first semi-final.
With a highly efficient gameplan based around excellent set-piece and well drilled moves off first-phase possession, Ireland’s progress was firmly rooted in the excellence of their pack — especially the back five.
Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Stephen Ferris and Jamie Heaslip were ripping it up all tournament and the broad consensus was that they would lay the platform again for Ireland to notch up their fifth win from five outings and make history.
Gatland saw them coming.
In what was a brilliant exhibition of elite coaching, the New Zealander ensured his Welsh players had an emphatic answer for every question posed by the Irish — most notably the feral chop tackling of Dan Lydiate as Ireland’s power runners were mown down at source.
Of all of Ireland’s World Cup failures, Wellington 2011 was the most agonising and frustrating — well, until the one last October.
How did Gatland get it so right on that grim night in Wellington 13 years ago? Well, he has never gone into much detail on the tactical masterclass that so brutally flummoxed the Irish but there is no doubt his experience on the Lions tour to South Africa two years previously played a significant role.
The Lions lost that series 2-1 against the world champion Boks but played well in doing so and Gatland was widely lauded for his contribution as forwards coach.
Not least by O’Connell, who captained that Lions party and, between build-up and tour, worked extremely closely with Gatland for more than two months over that summer. The Wales boss became equally acquainted with the abilities of O’Callaghan, Ferris and Heaslip, who all shone on that expedition under Gatland’s expert guidance.
It meant that when the Wales head coach sat down to plot a strategy for overcoming Ireland two years later, he was well versed in the strengths and, crucially, the weaknesses of the core Irish forwards.
Four years later, Gatland went into the 2015 World Cup buttressed by his experience as Lions head coach on the 2013 trip to Australia and used it superbly to stun England in Twickenham before
being unluckily beaten by South Africa in the last eight.
In 2019, he led Wales to the last four once again, this time fuelled by his achievements when leading the Lions to a memorable drawn series in New Zealand in 2017.
Following Andy Farrell’s confirmation as Lions head coach yesterday for next year’s expedition to Australia, one of the narratives has been how his sabbatical might affect Ireland’s latest attempt to reach that elusive first World Cup semi-final in 2027.
However, rather than hinder those prospects, Farrell’s Lions leadership could actually turn out to be the missing piece of Ireland’s World Cup jigsaw.
The Gatland example is highly encouraging in this regard. There is no question Lions coaching helped the Kiwi when he returned to Wales duty and the same will be true for Farrell (and O’Connell if the Ireland assistant coach is included in the backroom team for Down Under). And, in truth, when you wade through all the corporatespeak hoopla from yesterday’s announcement, this is the only thing that really matters from an Irish perspective: Will this Lions tour help us get to a World Cup semi-final for the first time in 40 years?
The hangover from Ireland’s latest quarter-final failure is still throbbing painfully and it has been hard to engage with the domestic season or get excited about another Six Nations showdown. Been there, done that. Next… The World Cup seems a very long way away and a Lions victory against a woeful Wallabies outfit (even worse than they were in 2013) seems like an irrelevance — except for how it can benefit Ireland in ending four decades of World Cup agony.
As our colleague Rory Keane argued in these pages last weekend, Ireland need to rip up the script, abandon the failed policies of the past and seek new departures.
Having the Ireland coach take time out to lead the Lions definitely qualifies — it has not happened in the professional era.
Much as he may wish to airbrush it from history, Eddie O’Sullivan was assistant on the disastrous 2005 tour to New Zealand, where he oversaw the first team, but it had minimal impact on his Ireland tenure — merely missing out on the 2005 summer tour to Japan.
After landing the 2009 Grand Slam, Kidney was in the running for the 2013 gig but his Wellington woe put paid to that while Joe Schmidt never got the chance in 2017 as Gatland had it locked down.
So, we are breaking new ground here, and what harm?
Rather than four seasons of the same old, same old, the Lions tour is a handy distraction to keep things fresh in the countdown to Australia 2027 and can serve as a dry run for Farrell’s return Down Under with Ireland for the big one.
There will be plenty of the usual Lions guff thrown around, the stuff about ‘four into one’ and ‘we are not English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh anymore… we are Lions’, they may even get special wristbands and a tour song like they did under Woodward in 2005.
But it is all secondary to what truly counts on Andy Farrell’s CV — being the first coach to bring Ireland to the last four of the World Cup.
Sure, getting the Lions gig is an honour that Farrell will appreciate but beating Australia is no great boast these days — it would rank below last year’s Grand Slam or the series win in New Zealand — and way, way below a first World Cup semi-final.
But, for now, let’s take it for what it is. A chance for Farrell to broaden his knowledge, strengthen his coaching hand and test the environment for when it really matters two years later.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t run into Gatland in the quarter-finals.
A chance for Farrell to strengthen his coaching hand