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British & Irish Lions

Ex British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton names 'obvious choice' for 2025 coach

By Josh Raisey

03 Nov 2023

Sam Warburton

Two-time British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton has listed Scotland coach Gregor Townsend, England coach Steve Borthwick and Ireland coach Andy Farrell as his three candidates to take charge of the team in 2025, saying Farrell is the “obvious choice”.

Warren Gatland has overseen the last three series, but ruled himself out of consideration this week, creating plenty of speculation as to who will succeed him in the tour of Australia in two years’ time.

Warburton, who led the Lions to a series win over the Wallabies in 2013 and a drawn series against the All Blacks in 2017, explained why he thinks Farrell is the right man for the job. The Welshman described Farrell as “one of the best coaches I’ve had,” having worked with him during the 2017 tour where Farrell was defence coach.

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“You’ve got to look at the home nations and people who have got some Lions experience in the past,” Warburton said to Sky Sports recently.

“The names that come to mind are people like Gregor Townsend, who was assistant coach on the last tour, Steve Borthwick who has been an assistant, and Andy Farrell who has been a defence coach and assistant coach of the Lions as well.

“These three guys will all know what it takes and the pressure of a Lions tour.

“Andy Farrell has the most success as a head coach at international level, and he would be the obvious choice, but he’s got a fantastic role at Ireland with one of the best teams in the world there and they are building something special. Even though they might have fallen at the World Cup quarter-final hurdle, they are going to be a force in world rugby for quite some time.”

Warburton did question though whether Farrell would be willing to step away with his role with Ireland in the same way Gatland did with Wales for potentially a year before the tour. He said: “So whether he wants to relinquish that role for the six-to-12 month period that you need, there’s a lot of conversations that need to be had. But if you were picking it as a fantasy team now, Andy Farrell would be the frontrunner, given the fact he’s been on two tours. He was the defence coach for the two tours I was on, and without doubt one of the best coaches I’ve had.”

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1 Comment

Bob Marler 379 days ago

What about Eddie? He’s free I believe?

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Comments on RugbyPass

QK 8 minutes ago

Five legends to be inducted into World Rugby Hall of Fame

All these Hall of Fame inductees are only from tier one Nations if I seen that right, so...Jerry Tuwai one of the 7s greatest players from Fiji who won 7s World Cups, multiple HSBC 7s series, double gold and a silver Olympic medalist is well decorated to be considered as an inductee in my book. So World Rugby, do you undermine the achievement of rugby players from non tier one countries? It seems that way.....just a concern.

1 Go to comments

Cantab 12 minutes ago

Wallabies tour is over for Samu Kerevi after disciplinary verdict

See a lot worse tackles in rugby league, most of which go virtually unpunished. Rugby appears to be over sensitive as most appear to be accidental and do not actually cause injury. Off the ball tackles have more potential for this

3 Go to comments

LW 30 minutes ago

Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold

Gatland might not be able to do much with wales but he has been rubbish in his home country which i put more stock in personally

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OJohn 31 minutes ago

How leviathan Will Skelton and the Wallabies reversed the World Cup fiasco

True but was also a dumb ass penalty magnet which is probably why the Qld Reds sacked him.

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OJohn 37 minutes ago

Sadness pervades as Gatland stands on the brink of Welsh exit

Sack the kiwi. They have destroyed Australian rugby too.

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Cantab 37 minutes ago

Michael Hooper reacts to Scott Barrett’s controversial late-game call

Not at all, the ref was probably as right as the TMO was wrong on earlier calls. The ref does have the authority to countermand an incorrect call even though a rarity

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DrinkAwayTheConcussion 41 minutes ago

Two former All Blacks clash on success of 2024 campaign

Potentially. It’s an interesting question because stats wise over 7 games (that’s all we got in 2020) it’s Fozzie 50% (including a draw) vs Razor 57%.

Realistically, the ABs were one pass on the chest from hoskins sotutu away from being even stevens with razor.

4 of those games were against the same opposition (who weren’t in great shape in 2020 either), factor in getting smoked by Argentinians who hadn’t stepped foot on a pitch at any level for most of a year, and yeah Razors looking much better with his two close losses to the saffas and only a butt ugly colossal tit fk of an effort Argentina to blot the score sheet.

However.

He got handed glorified training runs against Fiji and a Wallabies side that played like they were sponsored by ketamine.

Razor had 3 easy wins (Fiji and 2X Aussie) and 4 tough games (argies and English ) out of his first seven, and he lost 1 of them and won two others by an absolute Invercargill bees dick in July.

Fozzie had Aussie and Argentina in isolation and covid and all

that bollocks to deal with as well.

So, it’s a bit harder to compare.

Our forwards are LIGHT YEARS better now than under plumnuts.

People might birch about razors selections but he never did anything nearly as extra-chromosome’d as putting Jordie on the fuggin wing.

So yeah I think you’re probably right.

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MA 44 minutes ago

World Cup-winning halfback on Cam Roigard’s substitution in France loss

Defences and Discipline are winning test matches at the moment. NZ led the stats in attack on all the games they lost in 2024. They are choosing to prioritise running rugby over winning games. Rugby is such a territory-based game at the moment because of how many penalties per game there are and how well-organised defences have become. NZ needs to stop trying to be the best entertainers and adapt to the laws that favour the defending team. They need to improve their tactical kicking. When the laws change to enable running rugby - they will be kings again.

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J Marc 46 minutes ago

'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

For Dupont, he did'nt played six nations too. This year for him was not a usual year because of seven and the olympics. For FFR and LNR , 5 years ago, it was a war. Things are changing, too slowly perhaps, but they are changing and we have to be patient.

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MA 57 minutes ago

Michael Hooper reacts to Scott Barrett’s controversial late-game call

There is a lot of discussion about the penalty in the 73rd minute and the decision to go for the posts. What about the penalties awarded to NZ in the 52nd, 61st and 66th minutes?

In those instances, they were behind by 3 points, 7 points and 3 points, respectively. In all of those opportunities, NZ was deep in French territory and was breaking the line with relative ease. Every time they were in the French 22, they took the easy option with the 3 points. A try was needed to take the lead and apply scoreboard pressure. And it felt like if they just kept the pressure on in the French 22, it was going to come.

But instead, the cycle kept repeating where NZ took the 3, France kicked deep into NZ territory and got unlucky with dubious calls against them (2 by the TMO), which kept them in front.

Scott Barrett is a great player but lacks the confidence to be captain. It was so obvious in real time that they were the wrong calls, and that's why Razor berated him in the immediate on-field interview.

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JW 1 hour ago

'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

SA will be per say, I think URC is founded in Dublin? Yes indeed re football, most powerful or most corrupt. Football is even in more of a predicament than French rugby. As I alluded to in another comment, FIFA brought in the FFP but the EPL is so many times more rich than the LNR is compared to it's governing bodies that it's taking years to do anything about the breaches (and at huge cost no doubt) of teams like Manchester City.

Never the less they are things that are being done. It just needs good people to play nice and it certainly looks like both parties (FFR and LNR) having been trying hard in recent years, and it's not as bad as you make it sound.

Haha I like that phrase! Yes certainly different perspectives as NZ has already thrown out their rugby culture (in regards to the topic of competitions) but I can understand wanting to hold on (as I do to the former NZ setup). One of those things is that it's not as easy to say everyone wants to see Dupont every game either, is it. You want to see some of future too, but I see that Dupont has only been involved in a third of this years Top 14 games. Has he been injured, it's even less that he normally plays.

You depict a league accepting change and looking for the right fit, I'm sure it will get there. Nick doesn't reckon SA and at the same level yet but I'm sure I read an article confirming the SAn posters on this site saying the no longer pay wages (might still be closer to a English model/balance than French though), but I can't find it now. Will have to dbl check that one but remember FIFA do hold power, you only need to look at the amount of international football to realise that. LNR can easily be made to bend if push comes to shove through how tightly it's players are tied to international rugby (large forieign contingent).

242 Go to comments

POHM 1 hour ago

Two former All Blacks clash on success of 2024 campaign

Don't you mean a lot better, 50% compared to 70% and played better teams than Foster, and played in the South Africa and Northern hemisphere, compared to Foster who was able to base his team across the ditch.

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Nickers 1 hour ago

Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold

Against England in particular I think this was tactical. They wanted to keep the ball in the middle of the park to split the rush defence either side of the breakdown and attack inside the shooter. Often times this meant pointless carries from side to side to ensure they stayed central.

The blitz D works best when the breakdown is on the sideline, the defenders don't have to make any reads because the ball can only go one way, and the whole line can sprint up and take away all the space. That's why teams that play this D leave space in the 15m wide channels and are happy to concede 10m+ of territory to force a breakdown there because they know the they can put max pressure on the next tackle.

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PM 1 hour ago

Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold

Just reread your comment and saw you did already mention penalties🙃

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PM 1 hour ago

Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold

Also struggling less discipline-wise. Don't know the exact penalty numbers but certainly far far fewer silly ones.

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DM 1 hour ago

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I cannot agree with this. It's smoke and mirrors by Borthwick to mask the poor selection strategy for his bench and the poor perofrmance of those subs when brought on.

We are not losing these matches by miles because players are running out of puff. We are losing them by small margins because of a shockingl poor defensive system adn some careless errors.

And if we are running out of puff, it might also have something to do with our continuous blitzing at breakneck speed like headless chickens - withotu ever pausing for breath

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Nickers 1 hour ago

Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold

That's harsh on Gatland. Wales downfall was predicted a few years ago due to massive financial woes. They can't afford to invest in the regions so Welsh teams are just getting worse and worse. The worse they get the less people are interested/watch/attend and the less money comes in. They are in a death spiral that leads them to Tier 2 rugby nation.

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Hellhound 1 hour ago

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I have an idea Rassie wants to keep Willie and his experience close for next year, so he stops Willie from retiring at the end of the year from international rugby. That 100 Test cap golden carrot. Besides Damian Willemse, the Boks fullbacks isn't quite there yet and they need that experience from Willie.

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Nickers 1 hour ago

Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold

This is the thing about Joe Schmidt teams. You can see and measure their improvement week after week.