Kieran Shannon: The Gary Keegan method has Andy Farrell and Ireland putting trust in ‘The Process’

There are certain differences as well as similarities between Gary Keegan’s brief with the national rugby team and the one he had with the boxers

WORK IN PROGRESS: We have to think that with Gary Keegan on board to both challenge and support him as he did a Billy Walsh and Jim Gavin, Andy Farrell will be a better head coach come France 2023. Picture: Inpho/Billy Stickland

The last time Gary Keegan was this deeply embedded in an Irish national team setup, signs of progress weren’t that obvious either.

With just two qualifying tournaments remaining ahead of the 2008 Olympics, the Irish high performance boxing unit, which Keegan was overseeing as its performance director, had only one fighter who’d secured a ticket to Beijing. As a programme they knew they were doing so much right, far better than they had prior to Athens, but something was still off.