New Lions boss Farrell vows to learn from Ireland's World Cup misfortune

The Ireland head coach will lead the tourists to Australia next year, it was confirmed on Thursday. 

BIG ENTRANCE: Andy Farrell was confirmed as th new Lions head coach in London on Thursday. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Andy Farrell promised to give everything to both his head coaching roles after accepting the challenge of leading the British & Irish Lions 2025 Tour to Australia and the Ireland boss gave every indication his World Cup disappointment will be informing his preparations in the coming months.

The 2023 World Rugby Coach of the Year was yesterday confirmed as the man to lead the Lions into their three-Test series Down Under against the Wallabies in 18 months and the 48-year-old will temporarily leave his day job with the IRFU from next December.

Until then, Farrell will lead Ireland into their Six Nations title defence next month and on the summer tour to world champions South Africa before bowing out for his nine-month sabbatical after next season’s November internationals.

The Englishman guided Ireland back to the top of the World Rugby rankings by beating the All Blacks in a historic first series win in New Zealand in 2022 and then last season’s Grand Slam in the midst of a national record 17 consecutive Test victories. That winning run ended at the worst possible moment when Ireland lost a cliffhanger of a World Cup quarter-final, 28-24, to the All Blacks in Paris last October. Though that did not deter the IRFU from extending his existing contract up to the 2027 World Cup, also in Australia, nor the Lions from pinpointing him as the man to succeed three-tour head coach Warren Gatland, Farrell yesterday vowed to learn the lessons of a loss widely perceived as a bitterly unfortunate matter of fine margins.

Speaking to the media for the first time since Ireland’s exit at Stade de France as he was unveiled at the headquarters of the Lions’ new shirt sponsor, insurance broker Howden in the City of London, Farrell spoke of his intent to take fortune out the equation for his teams.

Asked what he had learned from the World Cup, his first as a head coach, Farrell said: “It can’t just but down to fine margins or the bounce of a ball, or luck.

“You’ve got to cover more bases than that and have to fight harder to make sure you’re successful. To play some good rugby and play some fighting rugby that everyone wants to see and get behind is all well and good, but you’ve got to stay with it for the duration. This is a duration tour.

“You’ve obviously got to cover all bases in regards to different ramifications, minute-by-minute, second-by-second in the international arena, and at the highest order which is a Lions tour. If you start games regularly well just because your set-piece is strong, your breakdown is strong, to presume it is going to be like that for every second of every game is pretty hard to obtain but that’s what you should be striving for.” 

Farrell said the experience had made him hungrier as a coach, adding: “One hundred per cent. Literally after the final whistle there’s nothing bittersweet about it… it’s not bitter, you just learn. It’s just life isn’t it. You get on with it and try to get better.” 

He also said his Lions tenure would return him to the Ireland job in the autumn of 2025 better than when he left it.

“I’m going to get better as a coach and learn even more, hence why I want to coach (Ireland) in the autumn. We’re coaching against huge, mammoth Southern Hemisphere teams in the autumn and to miss that opportunity would be tragic for me as a coach and my development. I love coaching. That’s what I am, a coach. Am I going to learn from this experience? The answer is pretty obvious.” 

The 2025 schedule will begin in Dublin with a warm-up Test against Argentina at Aviva Stadium on June 20 to mark the IRFU’s 150th anniversary before the first of five tour matches against Australian Super Rugby franchises and an Invitational AU and NZ side ahead of the first Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane on July 19. One of Farrell’s key decisions ahead of the tour will be to appoint a captain and when asked what he was looking for in his ideal skipper he also gave an insight into the current process for replacing the now retired Johnny Sexton ahead of Ireland’s upcoming Six Nations campaign.

Farrell is expected to reveal his choice next week when he announces his initial squad to train in Portugal ahead of the championship opener against France in Marseille on Friday, February 2 with Peter O’Mahony, James Ryan, Garry Ringrose, and Caelan Doris among the reported candidates.

The 2025 Lions captain has some big shoes to fill with Welsh forwards Sam Warburton and Alun Wyn Jones having led the last three tours. As to whether Farrell wants a similar type of leader to succeed them, the head coach said: “Not necessarily, it is about the right person for the job at that moment in time. Age does not come into it.

“Respect. Respect in the right manner. He does not have to be best player neither. He has to be the right person to lead the group and that is all that matters.

“At the same time, you have got to be transparent. You have to be honest. If you are not honest then they won’t trust you. So therefore you see how the tour develops. Just because you are captain you haven’t got a God given right (to be picked). You should have in your own mind from the start, however, so you need to be the type of character that flourishes in that type of environment.”