History-making Farrell must be lured back to manage England
ANDY FARRELL is on the verge of becoming the Jack Charlton of Irish rugby after the historic series victory over the All Blacks. proud Englishman to his core, Farrell has masterminded the evolution of a magnificent team that went where no Ireland team has gone before in triumphing in New Zealand.
If next autumn’sworld Cup goes well too – and why wouldn’t it on the euphoric evidence of Wellington yesterday – he will be deified across the Irish Sea.
What happens afterwards will be fascinating.a contract extension from the IRFU will be offered but Twickenham should move heaven and earth to try to prise him away from Dublin.
Appeal to the heart, appeal to the wallet but just make sure he comes home – Farrell has to be the man to take over from Eddie Jones.the wisecrack count would be lower but we could all live with that.
Farrell’swigan warmth and honesty would be a welcome breath of fresh air as the next England head coach.
There are hurdles to clear, admittedly. Farrell’s last England involvement was not a happy one. He was sacked in a clearout of Stuart Lancaster’s management team when Jones (right) took over after the 2015 World Cup failure.
Jones actually thought long and hard about keeping Farrell on as defence coach, given the positive reports he heard about his influence, but in the end decided that it was just too complicated with his son, Owen, a key part of the team.
The question of their relationship remains a live one.the coach who succeeds Jones after the 2023World Cup is likely to have the job of ending Farrell Jnr’s Test career. He will be 32 by then, with a lot of miles on the clock.
That would certainly make for an awkward conversation around the family dinner table.
But it should be a case of best man for the job – ideally best Englishman – and in terms of up-to-date international record and experience, there is no English head coach to touch Farrell.
It took him time to find his feet after being promoted to take over from Joe Schmidt as Ireland head coach three years ago.
The side stuttered at first. But look at them now – winners of back-to-back Tests in the most
demanding rugby environment in the world.
To put yesterday’s achievement into perspective, Farrell’s team are only the third side ever to win a Test series in New Zealand.
They have risen to the top of the world rankings on the back of it.
It is not only the results, which have included wins home and away against England in their last two meetings, but the rugby itself.
Modelled on the Leinster approach and using predominantly the same personnel, it has style as well as substance.
Farrell has been smart enough to borrow a way of playing which is both aesthetically pleasing and effective.
He has also picked players like Hugo Keenan, Jamison Gibson-park and Caelan Doris who suit it down to the ground.
Perhaps his best * move was in appointing Johnny Sexton as his captain and convincing the veteran stand-off he could play on until the next World Cup.
He is such a critical cog in the Ireland wheel.
Sexton will call it a day after the World Cup and will leave a huge void which may be a limiting factor on Ireland.with England’s Marcus Smith moving into the prime of his career, might that be a practical factor in persuading Farrell to return?
There are alternatives for England.
Steve Borthwick will have his supporters and the thoughtful Cumbrian has been transformative at Leicester since his appointment at Welford Road.
The switch flick from relegation fodder to Premiership champions has been seriously impressive.
But anyone paying £202 for an England ticket – as some will do for this autumn’s game against New Zealand – might demand more by way of entertainment than a Borthwick side is likely to deliver. Unless you are a Tigers fan you would not want to watch Borthwick’s Leicester every week. It is very much rugby by numbers.
For all that Borthwick has worked as an assistant coach with England and Japan and, like
Farrell, been part of a Lions management team, he has never been an international head coach.
It is the same with Shaun Edwards, who again has done a hugely impressive job as France defence coach but whose only experience of the top job was at club level withwasps.
The RFU have already drawn up an exhaustive long list of possible English successors to Jones.that can now be reduced to a shortlist of one. Andy Farrell.