Ireland confirm coaching team for summer tour

Paul O’Connell will be assisted by Denis Leamy, Mike Prendergast and Colm Tucker on Ireland’s summer tour of Georgia and Portugal.

Ireland legend O’Connell was confirmed as head coach for the matches in Tbilisi and Lisbon last week. One of the country’s most successful ever players, winning three Six Nations including a Grand Slam in 2009, he has been Ireland’s forwards coach since January 2021, helping guide the current side to a Grand Slam in 2023 and back-to-back Six Nations titles.

Andy Farrell is away on the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, and he is taking Simon Easterby, Andrew Goodman, and John Fogarty with him.

British & Irish Lions coaching team press conference | RP

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PauseSkip BackwardSkip Forward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 15:24

Loaded: 0%

00:00

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -15:24

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected

Audio Track

• en (Main), selected

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

ResetDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

British & Irish Lions coaching team press conference | RP

Andy Farrell and his British and Irish Lions coaching team take questions from Alex Payne ahead of their 2025 tour of Australia.

O’Connell admits that he is delighted to step into the unknown for the biggest challenge of his coaching career in what has been seen as a major gamble by the IRFU.

“I am honoured to accept the interim position of Head Coach for the forthcoming summer tour to Georgia and Portugal and it promises to be an important series of matches played against unfamiliar opponents in testing conditions.

“With a busy schedule of international rugby this summer, these two Tests will provide us with further opportunities to assess and develop the competition levels within the squad.

“I am excited to work with a coaching team who I know well individually and are hugely motivated to deliver success to Ireland and look forward to putting our plans in place over the coming weeks,” he said

Fixture

Internationals

Georgia

13:00

5 Jul 25

Ireland

All Stats and Data

Leamy and Prendergast both played with O’Connell for Munster, while the former was an Ireland teammate as well.

Prendergast and Tucker worked together earlier this year, meanwhile, as part of the Ireland A set-up that played England in Bristol.

IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys added: “We’re delighted that Paul has accepted this role and believe that his elevation ensures continuity within the men’s coaching team. It will also mark an important step in his coaching career as we look ahead to an exciting summer schedule.

“He will be assisted by Denis (Leamy), Mike (Prendergast) and Cullie (Tucker) who have all been in Ireland camp at different points over the last number of months and their selections is another positive progression in their coaching careers and reasserts the IRFU’s commitment to developing a pathway for Irish coaches.”