HAPPY CAMPERS
Farrell’s gift for man-management is bringing players to next level
THEY are motivated. They are hungry. They are flying fit and supremely well drilled. And the Irish rugby team are happy. Of all the components that go into making a successful team in high-level sport, happiness is one of the trickier to gauge.
It can’t be tracked with wearable tech. No amount of sport science can come up with a definitive measure.
But it matters, and it is clear that this Irish squad under Andy Farrell is as happy as we’ve seen.
Players invariably talk about their delight at being in camp, but that’s a line every bit as rehearsed as the ones about taking it one game at a time, or fully respecting the next opponent.
The truth is that some representative squads are difficult places. They are sometimes toxic, too.
There is no clearer rugby example of the latter than the Irish squad at the 2007 World Cup, as their ambitions curdled.
Some players admitted, off the record of course, that the atmosphere within the group grew wretched as performances got worse and worse, and the pressure got more intense.
By the end of that ill-starred campaign, the team hotel was miserable; the low mood was detectable as soon as you walked in the front door.
More successful Irish groups have emerged in conditions that were not especially cheery.
Joe Schmidt transformed rugby in this country. There has been no coach as influential since the game turned pro. His ideas, communication skills and seemingly limitless appetite for hard work were renowned.
But it took a significant toll on his players, and camps became, for some, gruelling endurance tests. Donncha O’Callaghan’s famous story about Schmidt holding up the room key-card holder dropped by a player, and using it to warn against the dangers of carelessness, spoke to the coach’s rigorous approach — but his startling standards wore some down.
Happiness was not a word much associated with Ireland in those times.
And there are some who will wonder how important a nebulous idea like happiness is to a high-performance sports team.
Yet one of the triumphs of Andy Farrell’s time in charge has been creating a culture that is both demanding and happy.
A regular feature of the World Cup campaign was the testimony of players about atmosphere in the squad. They would say that, of course – but it was backed up by off-the-record accounts, and there was no mention of the tensions that sometimes featured in the Schmidt years.
Player after player described a camp that was the best they had ever been part of. One of the most telling commentaries actually came almost two years before the World Cup, following the 2021 autumn internationals.
That was the run of games that included a superb win against New Zealand in Dublin, and it was the most emphatic proof of the improvements that Farrell had brought about, and which had first emerged at the end of that year’s Six Nations.
Peter O’Mahony spoke about Farrell’s Ireland at the end of the series: ‘I have loved the month,’ he said. ‘It’s probably the most enjoyable one of my career so far, which has been a while now. It’s been great.’
An even more powerful tribute came at the end of the World Cup, on the October night that New Zealand edged Ireland out. Johnny Sexton was distraught, dealing with the end of his career but also a campaign that the players were convinced could end in unprecedented success.
Instead, disappointment was the Irish fate once more, but Sexton recognised what Farrell had created within the national camp.
‘The last couple of years, in the green jersey anyway, have been the most enjoyable of my career,’ he said.
‘The way Faz leads us, no-one wants to leave. It’s an incredible place to be, going to work with those guys.’
And, against the expectations of many, the good times survived that defeat, as evidenced by that walloping win in Marseille.
If happiness is difficult to measure, then one indirect pointer is the form of players in Ireland jerseys, who are part of struggling provincial sides.
O’Mahony, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley and Calvin Nash all impressed against France, with the first two outstanding. That is significant given both the limited playing time that O’Mahony has had because of injury, but also given that his future is so clouded.
With his national contract due to expire at the end of the season and no news of a Munster renewal, this season has also seen O’Mahony step down as Munster captain.
His precise reasoning remains unclear, amid much speculation, but it made for an unstable foundation for his Test campaign.
Yet Farrell backed him resolutely when choosing Sexton’s replacement to captain the team, and O’Mahony repaid that backing with his display in France.
But his performance also showed how healthy the national camp is when a player can overcome his personal setbacks, and the inconthe
sistencies that have blighted Munster’s season, to lead as he did against such a strong opponent.
Beirne has had to live with the effects of Munster’s yoyoing form, too. He has stood in as captain since O’Mahony stepped aside, including for the win in Toulon, and the dispiriting defeat to Northampton in Limerick a week later.
There have been times when Beirne has looked weighed down, not necessarily by the responsibility of captaincy, but by the erratic form of his team.
But last Friday night, he looked renewed, and was the world-class force of nature that he has been for years under Farrell.
Bundee Aki also fits this category, as injury blighted his Connacht return following the World Cup. A hamstring injury meant he did not play until their European opener against Bordeaux in December. That was a tough night for the province, as three of their four Champions Cup fixtures were, ending in heavy defeats.
Better form was in evidence in their inter-provincials against Ulster and Munster but it has been a first season of unpredictable performances under Pete Wilkins.
Yet Aki, who finished the World Cup as the form centre in the world, looked that again a week ago.
He was irrepressible against France, a source not only of powerful carries but a creative presence who continues to play his best rugby as he nears his mid-30s.
None of this is coincidental; these are class players who produce their best time and again under Andy Farrell.
That speaks to the quality of the coaching they receive, but it’s also because they are happy. It’s an intangible factor, but a critical one to the success of this side.