Warren Gatland believes Andy Farrell is right to follow his Lions lead

Wales’ head coach Warren Gatland at the launch of the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Championship at the Colosseum in Rome. Picture: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

Three-time British & Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland has urged Andy Farrell to be completely neutral as he runs the rule over his potential tourists for this summer during the upcoming Guinness Six Nations.

Farrell succeeds Gatland for the 2025 tour to Australia and three-Test series against Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies having served as the Lions defence coach alongside his predecessor in 2009 and as his assistant in 2013 and 2017.

It was Gatland who saw the need to separate his national team coaching duties with Wales by recusing himself from the Six Nations campaign ahead of his tours as head coach and speaking this week in Rome as he prepares to embark on his 17th championship as Welsh head coach, he explained why he felt Farrell is right to follow his lead, having left his defence coach Simon Easterby in interim charge.

“I thought from a Lions perspective it is paramount, because you have got to pull yourself away from that if you want to be seen as neutral as you possibly can be,” Gatland said.

“If you’re going to watch another team train, you’ve got to build trust that you’re not going to share any of the ideas or things you’ve seen. Building a relationship with the other coaches and the trust with the other coaches and having those conversations, I think it’s really important.

“You’re helping to develop the other coaches for that role, potentially for the future. As part of their development someone else, like Simon, gets that role and everyone else tends to step up and get an opportunity and I see that as a big positive for us and also for Ireland in the future.” 

Easterby made his media debut as interim Ireland head coach at the same Six Nations launch and said Farrell had served as “a sounding board” in the build-up to the championship but there was no suggestion the Lions head coach would carry on those interactions once the 2025 campaign gets underway this weekend.

Gatland believes if people perceived Farrell was pulling Ireland’s strings from afar it would be undermining to both Easterby and the Lions.

“If that was the case, then you’d lose that integrity and that trust with the other teams if you’re going to watch them train.

“You undoubtedly will have some conversations, like ‘how did the week go?’ but you’re not giving any advice, telling them what to do.

“To get the respect that’s required in that role, you’ve got to be impartial and that’s something you’ve got to be conscious of.

“Yes, Andy’s going to be cheering for Ireland and wanting them to do well and Simon to do well in that role, but he’s got to be able to step back a little bit and his role with the Lions – he needs to step back and get trust from other coaches and players.”