Farrell knew what he was looking for with Bono speech
News that U2 frontman Bono was drafted in to the Ireland camp this week to talk to the players about “Irishness” produced a fair bit of sniggering in the aisles. In fairness, photos of the singer serving captain Johnny Sexton his soup at Carton House did look a bit naff. And while Cian Healy insisted that Bono was “a good rambler now” and had given the boys a fascinating and well-prepared talk, it was easy to dismiss the exercise as little more than a photo op. Some even expressed sympathy for the players having to listen to Bono drone on for an hour and 40 minutes.
Andy Farrell, though, knew exactly what it was he was looking for.
Inspiring players is what he does best. He has done it his entire life. Ask any player or coach who has ever worked with Farrell what he is like as a man and you will get a variation on the same response, with words such as inspiring, charismatic, gravitas and hard liberally sprinkled about.
Take this from Munster and Ireland centre Chris Farrell: “Faz is a massively inspiring character. You go into camp and the work that he has done prior to you going in there is phenomenal. And the work he continues to do while you are in the camp is inspiring. He has so much charisma you really want to play for him. He was a legend playing rugby league and he has continued that in his coaching. Physically, he’s a mountain of a man himself.”
Or this from lock Joe Launchbury, who played under Farrell when he was defence coach at England: “I really liked Andy. There are lots of similarities with Little Faz [son Owen Farrell] here. You kind of remember a lot of Andy by the way Faz is now. I always knew him as a really energetic coach who spoke really well. I always felt he had a head coach role in him but he was quite a new coach when he came to us, especially on the international level. But I always felt that would be a natural progression for him. It was only a matter of time. Obviously he has gone on and proved himself in a number of different roles, with the Lions and stuff. And his first two games [in charge of Ireland] haven’t been too bad either.”
Farrell was the ultimate players’ player. And now he is the ultimate players’ coach, his credentials unimpeachable. Northern, tough, working class, a father before he was out of his teens, captain of the great Wigan team of the 1990s, a two-time man of steel, a dual code international. Is it any wonder players look up to him?
Farrell clearly uses that charisma well. He can swear and scare. His “Hurt Arena” speech to the British and Irish Lions back in 2013, while not quite Jim Telfer “This is your Everest, boys” levels of inspiring, has likewise entered into Lions folklore. It was no surprise Warren Gatland asked Farrell to tour again when he led the Lions to New Zealand in 2017.
But Farrell is far more than just a shouter and a screamer. As Launchbury pointed out: “You can’t just be that. You have to have a level of detail as well. He reminds me a lot of Owen here, because they are very similar in lots of ways, in terms of delivery of message.”
Farrell has clearly thought long and hard about how to rejuvenate this Ireland squad. It was instructive listening to him at Ireland’s pretournament camp in Portugal talking about the coaches who most inspired him growing up.
“I start back with my amateur coach Haydn Walker,” he said. “He used to pick me up, take me to training, look after me at weekends and take me back. I look back and that’s what being a coach is about: caring, being the right mentor.”
Or Graeme West, his coach at Wigan. “I take a massive amount from him,” said Farrell. “He coached Wigan for just one year. There were five trophies to go for and he won all five. Why? Because he’s a great bloke and people wanted to play for him. When I look at the best technical coaches I’ve had I compare whether they’ve got the man management and the emotion right, and whether they can combine everything that makes a great coach. I suppose I have a lot of thoughts about how I want to be.”
Bono’s visit may have been dismissed by some as a PR stunt this week but Farrell has a strategy here. More than once he has referenced Ireland’s victory over England at Croke Park in 2007 as the sort of spirit he wants to reproduce; that sense of pride, of Irishness. It is why he also brought Paul O’Connell in this week. If he has succeeded in laying the right foundations, chances are Farrell will deliver the stirring team talk to get them to boiling point this afternoon. By all accounts there are few better.