TYRRELL
But Ireland’s next head coach keen to put his stamp on the role
Limerick are peaking too soon in quest to retain MacCarthy Cup
‘You’ll learn as you go along and I’m aware of that’ ‘I didn’t want to look back in the future and have regrets’
ANDY FARRELL will need to get used to this. Ireland’s defence guru was confirmed as Joe Schmidt’s successor in late November of last year, but yesterday was the first time that Farrell has faced the media since his promotion.
There will be no place to hide after the World Cup when he takes up the top job.
Front-of-house media duties will be just one of the many new tasks he will need to juggle.
There is also the small matter of following Schmidt. Regardless of what happens in the next nine months, the Kiwi will leave a long shadow and a long list of trophies and achievements behind him.
When the IRFU announced that Schmidt would ‘finish coaching’ and leave his post as Ireland head coach, Farrell was immediately confirmed as the boss-in-waiting.
Farrell will be the first Englishman to run the show since the ill-fated Brian Ashton regime in the late 1990s. Having signed a six-year deal with the IRFU, Ashton sensationally resigned less than 12 months into the gig after watching Ireland suffer a first-round loss to Scotland in the Five Nations.
That was as era when avoiding the wooden spoon was top of the agenda. Thanks to the likes of Schmidt, the standards demanded of this Irish team are far higher. That is the level of expectation that Farrell will need to deal with next year.
The IRFU have backed him to be their man with a contract taking him through to the 2023 World Cup in France.
For all Farrell’s achievements with England, the Lions and Ireland as a defensive specialist, it was quite the vote of confidence for a man who has never held a head coaching role.
Farrell’s impact since he took over the defence brief from Les Kiss in 2016 is unquestionable, but this will be a major step up. When the likes of Eddie Jones began making inquiries about his services, the IRFU needed to act fast and thus Farrell was given first refusal of the top job.
‘I was coming to a stage where jobs were being offered in the head coach role and I had said no to quite a few,’ said Farrell on his appointment last November.
‘I didn’t want to get to a stage where I was going to look back in the future and have regrets. I would have 100 per cent regretted not taking this one.’
Having worked under Schmidt for the past three years, Farrell will not ripping up the whole blueprint when he starts planning for the 2020 Six Nations, his first assignment next season.
Still, the 43-year-old Lancastrian will want to put his own stamp on things.
‘You are always assessing stuff,’ he said.
‘The biggest change really is time management and making sure that you are across the managing-up part and the managing down.
‘As an assistant coach, you assist the head coach. That is your main role. But as head coach there will be more roles and responsibilities in and around, on the outside of rugby etc,’ he added.
‘You will learn that as you go along and it is something I am fully aware of.’
Putting together a new backroom team will be top of his intray. Greg Feek, Ireland’s highlyregarded scrum coach, is heading off to coach in Japan after the World Cup. Simon Easterby and Richie Murphy (the respective forwards and skills coaches) are in place until 2020. It remains to be seen whether Farrell brings in a new defence coach or if he continues to run that department himself. He may be looking for an attack or backs coach as well.
Asked whether he is a good delegator, Farrell replied: ‘We will see. I believe I am. I think you need a bit of humility as well, let people have their legs etc, and I have got good people who can manage with that type of thing as well.’
Those are all permutations for now. The Six Nations and the World Cup in Japan are the main focus for Farrell at this point in time. Farrell was speaking yesterday after an open training session attracted 4,000 fans to Lansdowne Road, a sign of the hype surrounding the game in this country at present. That win over Scotland has steadied the ship somewhat after
the shock of the opening weekend loss to England.
It wasn’t a perfect performance in Murrayfield, but Ireland got a badly-needed win under their belts.
More importantly for Farrell, Ireland tightened up their defence having leaked four tries against England.
Scotland’s solitary try came from a Joey Carbery intercept. Otherwise, the visitors were staunch in defence.
‘It was a big week, the Scottish week,’ said Farrell.
‘There was disappointment in many different areas. It was a big game, we wanted to get back on the horse and get a “W” on the board. But a good performance individually and collectively came after. On top of that there are not many teams who come to Murrayfield these days and get a win.
‘We have been picking the performance apart in the last couple of days but if you get back to before kick-off, you are thinking, what is going to be a good outcome? A win would be a good outcome.
‘In my opinion, in terms of how the game went, I thought everyone has been talking about Scotland making too many errors in the second half, etc,’ said Farrell
‘I thought we got them to a point, probably on 50, 55 minutes where they had to start chasing the game a little, where we subconsciously grabbed hold of the game, forced them to play a little differently.
‘When you put that into context, I thought it was a super win.’
Inevitably, there will be British and Irish Lions talk over the next few years. Farrell has been the defence coach on the past two tours in Australia and New Zealand to great acclaim. South Africa in 2021 would compete the set for the former dual-code international.
‘I’ve not even thought about that,’ he said.
‘Look, the Lions is special. I’ve always said… Just off the top of my head, people have done it in the past haven’t they? But you’ve got to be asked the question first.
‘The question comes pretty late as far as the Lions is concerned.
‘It’s not something I’ve even given a minute’s thought to.’
He won’t have many spare minutes when he takes over from Schmidt, that’s for sure.