SHANAHAN TELLS HIS 49ERS: NO REGRETS!
Farrell, typically, showing no fear as he leads Ireland into battle
vHard Rock Stadium, Sunday
KYLE SHANAHAN has told his team to have no regrets when they walk off the field here on Sunday night.
Shanahan will follow in his dad’s footsteps when they become the first father and son ever to be head coaches in a Super Bowl as he leads San Francisco against Kansas City.
Mike Shanahan won the big one twice while in charge of Denver in the late 1990s.
But son Kyle had a bitter experience of the Super Bowl three years ago as an assistant coach with Atlanta when his team led 28-3 in the second half only for Tom Brady and the Patriots to beat them in overtime.
That defeat left its mark on the 49ers head coach but has helped him to prepare his team this week.
He said: “I have told them just to be yourselves. You get on this stage and if you get caught up in all this then you will worry about things that don’t matter.
“Our team has played with a clear mind all year. They have cut it loose and been aggressive. If you get too caught up in the wrong things, you will hesitate.
“We’ve got nothing to lose. Everyone is going to tell you how nervous you will be. I can speak firsthand because I’ve been part of a Super Bowl. A lot of people blamed me for a lot of stuff but I was still alive the next day.
“You go as hard as you can and you do as good as you can, and you live with the consequences. The worst thing you could regret is not going your hardest.
“You prepare the right way and be proud that you’re in this game. Do as good as you can and you can look in the mirror the rest of your life.”
WHEN his day finally arrived Andy Farrell was clear and decisive and unafraid to think big.
While the rest of the Six Nations worked to keep their plans secret, Ireland’s new head coach boldly named his team, and even left out the form player in Europe.
After a decade in rugby union spent coaching in an assistant capacity for club, country, even the Lions, it is at last Farrell’s turn to call the shots.
Half an hour up the road from where the England squad captained by his son Owen are shut away behind closed doors, Farrell snr threw open his to welcome a challenge he says he has worked for his entire career.
“I’ve been in professional sport for 28 years now and I feel I’ve been waiting for this day to arrive,” he said. “Challenges float my boat and I want to meet this one head on.”
Sport is full of examples of assistants who step up and shrivel in the spotlight. No one ever called Farrell a ‘No.2’.
“I’ve always tried to think in that direction,” he said of being the main man. “Always trying to assess how things are going and what would I do differently – for my own peace of mind more than anything, with one eye on my future.”
His feats on the rugby league field are the stuff of legend: debut for Wigan’s first team aged 16, youngest player to win a Challenge Cup final aged 17. Full international at 18, youngest Great Britain captain at 21.
A leader as a player from first to last, he insists transferring to a leadership role in coaching is the natural next step: “It feels normal – I don’t feel I’m doing anything but being myself.”
And so it was that he named his first Ireland team a full four days before Scotland come to Dublin, leaving Ulster’s red-hot scrum-half John Cooney on the bench.
“I’d rather just get it out there and get on with the week,” he smiled.
“We’ve been in this game long enough now to know the advantages and disadvantages and I almost feel it’s zero. about backing ourselves.”
Farrell’s idea of what he wants from his team is shaped by what Ireland did to him the one time he faced them in an England shirt in 2007.
The match was historic for a number of reasons, not least that it was the first rugby Test played at Croke Park and Ireland won 43-13, the most points conceded by an England side in 124 years of the championship.
Farrell winced as he recalled how Ireland blended forward domination with subtlety, ensuring emotion did not get in the way of playing the game as it should be played.
“That was the perfect performance,” he added.
“You’ve got to be smart enough, clever enough and calm enough to execute.
“My hope is that we’ll be a team the Irish public will enjoy watching.”
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