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The 'love it in Ireland' reason why Farrell has no England interest

By PA
Owen and Andy Farrell after a 2013 England win Dublin (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Andy Farrell is loving life in Ireland and has no interest in chasing a coaching role back in England as he seeks to clinch Grand Slam glory against his native country. The 47-year-old crossed the Irish Sea to become Joe Schmidt’s defence coach in 2016 in the aftermath of departing a similar role with England following the arrival of Eddie Jones.

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He has emphatically enhanced his coaching reputation in Dublin, guiding Ireland to a stunning series win over New Zealand, the top of the global rankings and the brink of a Guinness Six Nations clean sweep since replacing Schmidt as head coach after the 2019 World Cup.

RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said on the back of last summer’s historic tour success in New Zealand that Farrell was “very highly regarded” amid a recruitment drive to identify Jones’ successor as England boss.

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Farrell subsequently extended his Ireland contract to 2025 and has no regrets about leaving his homeland, while feeling forever grateful for the sacrifices made by his uprooted family. “When you make a decision, you commit and that’s it,” he said. “And, you know, I’m very lucky that it wasn’t just me that was committing, it was my wife and kids as well.

“Because whether you think it’s a close flight or connected or whatever to the UK, it’s still living abroad. It is a big move, you know, kids out of school.

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“It was a commitment from the family. And the more I look back on that I’m forever grateful for them showing me that commitment, you know, because it was just because of me, wasn’t it? We upped sticks and the kids went away from their friends et cetera, and that type of commitment is something that I’ll never forget from my family.”

Asked if he had felt the urge to pursue a job at home, he replied: “No, why would we? We love it here. We’re loving life here and the rugby’s pretty good as well.”

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Farrell is poised to face a host of familiar faces at a sold-out Aviva Stadium on St Patrick’s weekend. His son, Owen Farrell, will skipper an England side coached by his former Saracens co-captain and international teammate Steve Borthwick.

Farrell has backed Borthwick to eventually get England firing following a difficult start which has brought Calcutta Cup disappointment against Scotland and a drubbing by France. “Obviously, we are very aware of each other’s traits,” Farrell said of Borthwick, who was a fellow coach on the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand.

“He is an outstanding coach. When I worked with him on the Lions, I mean, the proof is in the pudding isn’t it really? Ask the players, they’re the people that matter and to a man, everyone was raving coming back from the Lions tour.

“Steve doesn’t rest on his laurels either. He will be enjoying this challenge as well, to make sure he gets better as a coach, and there is no doubt about it that he’ll get it right with England.”

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Farrell junior is back in England’s number 10 jersey after being dropped for the France game and will go head to head with veteran Ireland skipper Johnny Sexton, who is preparing for his final Six Nations game before retiring after the autumn World Cup.

“I think Owen and Johnny are pretty similar as far as the drive and the fight and the want,” said Farrell. “Both are super competitors and they’ll make sure that their team is of the same mindset as well. That’s why I said England are going to be extremely dangerous this weekend because of a mentality like that.”

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2 Comments
A
AOK 669 days ago

Most likely because he has the support of the fans.

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JW 48 minutes ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

Very good, now we are getting somewhere (though you still didn't answer the question but as you're a South African I think we can all assume what the answer would be if you did lol)! Now let me ask you another question, and once you've answered that to yourself, you can ask yourself a followup question, to witch I'm intrigued to know the answer.


Well maybe more than a couple of questions, just to be clear. What exactly did this penalty stop you from doing the the first time that you want to try again? What was this offence that stopped you doing it? Then ask yourself how often would this occur in the game. Now, thinking about the regularity of it and compare it to how it was/would be used throughout the rest of the game (in cases other than the example you gave/didn't give for some unknown reason).


What sort of balance did you find?


Now, we don't want to complicate things further by bringing into the discussion points Bull raised like 'entirety' or 'replaced with a ruck', so instead I'll agree that if we use this article as a trigger to expanding our opinions/thoughts, why not allow a scrum to be reset if that is what they(you) want? Stopping the clock for it greatly removes the need to stop 5 minutes of scrum feeds happening. Fixing the law interpretations (not incorrectly rewarding the dominant team) and reducing the amount of offences that result in a penalty would greatly reduce the amount of repeat scrums in the first place. And now that refs a card happy, when a penalty offence is committed it's going to be far more likely it results in the loss of a player, then the loss of scrums completely and instead having a 15 on 13 advantage for the scrum dominant team to then run their opposition ragged. So why not take the scrum again (maybe you've already asked yourself that question by now)?


It will kind be like a Power Play in Hockey. Your outlook here is kind of going to depend on your understanding of what removing repeat scrums was put in place for, but I'm happy the need for it is gone in a new world order. As I've said on every discussion on this topic, scrums are great, it is just what they result in that hasn't been. Remove the real problem and scrum all you like. The All Blacks will love zapping that energy out of teams.

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LONG READ ‘Like or it not, this Lions squad will be Irish. They deserve to dominate.’ ‘Like or it not, this Lions squad will be Irish. They deserve to dominate.’
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