ANDY HEARS LIONS’ ROAR

HANDY ANDY: Ireland head coach Andy Farrell

ANDY Farrell leads Ireland into the Six Nations with a glowing endorsement to be appointed the next British and Irish Lions head coach.

The Great Britain rugby league legend and England union coach has taken the Irish to No.1 in the world rankings.

The men in green have been installed by the bookies as favourites to win their first Six Nations title since 2018, and they are lowest priced home nation for the World Cup in France later this year.

Tasty

Farrell refuses to look beyond their next game, a tasty championship opener at Warren Gatland’s Wales on Saturday week.

Farrell learned how quickly fortunes can turn when England bombed out in the pool stages of their home World Cup in 2015.

But Sam Warburton, himself a two-time captain of the Lions, is clear that the crosscode great would be an “outstanding” choice to head up the 2025 tour to Australia.

“He would be great, phenomenal, because he gets it, he understands the Lions concept,” said the Welshman.

“Even though he is from league he played for Great Britain.”

Warburton skippered the Lions under forwards coach Farrell on the 2013 and 2017 tours, winning in Australia and sharing the series with New Zealand.

“When he spoke on those tours you could sense he wished he was playing with us,” he said. “As players we wished he was. We respected him that

much.

“We’d have team meetings, walk out and the boys would look at each other and be like ‘I’m ready to go now’.

“He would get you to an emotional level that not many coaches can.

“You know that anything he is asking you to do, he’d do himself 100 times over.”

The acclaim is well merited, given Ireland’s historic series win in

New Zealand last summer and losing just two of their past 17 Test matches.

Farrell knows success breeds expectation, even in a country yet to reach a World Cup semi-final, but he is clear as to how best to keep grounded.

“You focus on what’s in front of you,” he said.

“It’s about progression, being honest with yourself and then realising where you need to take your game.

“It’s about how we go out and perform and show we’re fighting together to improve.

“We have a pretty hungry group to be able to do that. The pressure is more internal than anything.

“That said, if the pressure from the outside does start to seep in a little, it’s good for us to be able to deal with that.”

Switching

Meanwhile, Scotland coach Gregor Townsend says John Cooney reached out to him about switching allegiances from Ireland and that he could add the Dublinborn scrum-half to his Six Nations squad.

New world rules mean Cooney, who won the last of his 11 caps in February 2020, can play for Scotland towards the end of next month.

“I spoke to John when the rule change came in,” said Townsend.

“He reached out to me to let me know it was something he’d consider.”

The new rules allow players to change allegiances after a threeyear cooling-off period.