Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Farrell is still on Gat radar
LIONS boss Warren Gatland has left the door open for Ireland’s head coach Andy Farrell to jump on board for this summer’s series against the Springboks.
The New Zealander was desperate to have the experienced legend on his staff.
He named Gregor Townsend, Neil Jenkins, Steve Tandy and Robin McBryde as his assistants for the trip last week.
Farrell, a Gatland wingman on the 2013 and 2017 tours, made himself unavailable because of his Ireland commitments with a visit to the Pacific Islands in the pipeline.
But that is still up in the air and Gatland has left one space on his staff free, keeping the door open for the possible addition of Farrell.
Gatland said: “It’s possible, it’s why we’ve left one of the spots open. I would have loved Andy to come.
“We’ve spoken about whether we need to bring someone else in, is it another hand before the tour starts?
“We’re looking at the home unions schedules, which are hopefully finalised this month.
“We didn’t know what the situation was with Ireland, if they were touring, I understood the commitment to that.
“I was leaving it as long as I possibly could and understood that if Ireland were touring there was a good chance that he wasn’t going to be available.”
IRELAND missed out on a place in the Women’s Six Nations final against England after a 56-15 defeat to France in Dublin yesterday.
The home side were 38-8 down by half-time but fought until the end and gained reward when Emma Hooban went over late on to add to Cliodhna Moloney’s earlier try.