The vibe, the captaincy, the Top 14: Five things in Andy Farrell’s Lions in-tray
ROARING LIONS: British & Irish Lions Coaching staff Aled Walters, David Nucifora, Andy Farrell and Vinny Hammond with the official 2025 British Irish Lions jersey at the Intercontinental Hotel Sydney Harbour. Pic: ©INPHO/British Irish Lions/Karen Watson
Plan A is all very well but it rarely works out that way. So many Lions tours have been won or lost through unforeseen circumstances.
Not unexpected but unforeseen in knowing exactly when or where injury is going to strike.
Think Scotland scrum-half, Andy Nicol, being summoned from his tour-rep gig (with all the late-night carousing that entailed) to provide emergency bench cover in the decisive third test in Sydney in 2001.
Or the Geography Six, the half-dozen players contentiously called up by Warren Gatland in New Zealand in 2017 in order to avoid using test players for a midweek fixture. (Name those six – answers at foot of column).
Of course Andy Farrell will be focussing on Plan A, fine-tuning the game-plan strategy to beat the Wallabies and choosing his players accordingly.
Three dash-and-dazzle fly-halves in Finn Russell, Marcus Smith and Fin Smith or two and a controlling maestro such as son, Owen? Decisions, decisions.
Choose the players to suit Plan A or pick the best players and then come up with the game plan? There’s plenty at stake in the coming seven weeks.
The Caelan Doris v Maro Itoje head-to-head on Saturday will, of course, have a great bearing on who leads the Lions to Australia with the Leinster man very much in the box seats in that regard.
What sort of captain does Andy Farrell want – one that will do his bidding or one that will challenge him if things start to go awry as happened to Graham Henry two Aussie tours ago in 2001?
Poor Brian O’Driscoll never did get much of a chance to stand up to Clive Woodward four years later in New Zealand, doing his captain’s bit in facing the haka in orchestrated fashion before getting spear-tackled into the ground seconds later and out of the tour.
Of even more importance, perhaps, is getting the coaching staff all singing from the same hymn sheet. Farrell has served his time as an assistant and knows the drill. Two are already on board, Scotland’s Aussie and former Ireland overlord, David Nucifora (take that Joe Schmidt) and strength and conditioning guru, Aled Walters.
The rest will follow with the likes of Gregor Townsend in the frame, Felix Jones maybe or another out-of-worker, Graham Rowntree. Paul O’Connell, Adam Jones, Shaun Edwards - there is quality as well as depth to hand.
This could be Farrell’s toughest gig of all. It is one he needs to face up to immediately. The Top 14 final is on June 28, a week after the Lions have played their warm-up fixture against Argentina in Dublin and headed south.
Toulouse are already heavily-fancied to make the final. Their 80-point Champions Cup thrashing of Leicester involved two strong Lions contenders in flanker, Jack Willis and full-back/wing, Blair Kinghorn.
Farrell has so little time to get a team sorted ahead of the first test against the Wallabies on July 19th that he can ill-afford for players to arrive late.
You might argue that Farrell has plenty of options at his disposal, Hugo Keenan, at full-back for instance and a raft of back-rowers.
But what if Keenan gets injured (see Plan B above)? Or can he really afford to pass over Willis (as England have done with their ban on picking players from outside the country)? Willis is a trump card for Toulouse, the best of the best in a world-class club side.
Of course Toulouse owe the Lions nothing. But, and it is a ‘but’ that involves perhaps the largest dollop of altruism ever known in rugby.
Toulouse owe it to their players and to the game to release them. Allez, Andy, Allez!
At least Farrell has got the whip hand in selection.
The dreadful bouts of horse-trading that used to precede the Lions selection are a thing of the past.
Ian McGeechan oversaw that move to a more professionalised approach, stemming from the moment that he insisted on a recce trip to South Africa to take in the seminal Springboks v New Zealand series in 1996 (with the All Blacks winning there for the first time ever), a fact-finding visit that McGeechan believes was instrumental in the Lions series victory a year later.
Geech set the tone, with preparation and selection very much top of the agenda. So, Farrell will pick the best but be mindful that a top-heavy representation from one country, such as Ireland, does not necessarily generate the best Lions XV or environment.
Graham Henry, with Wales in 2001, and Clive Woodward with an English contingent four years later, found that out to their cost.
The easiest part of all. But one of the most important, nonetheless.
England wing, Ben Cohen, returned from the 2001 tour to Australia, saying that he had never been so disappointed in his life, expecting it to be the experience of a lifetime only to find it was a relentless grind as coaches beasted the players.
Even Graham Henry was to admit to the error of his ways some years later. Farrell will not make that mistake.
His presence in the stands throughout the Six Nations will generate a selection excitement of its own while his laid-back, work-hard-play-hard, character will ensure that the mood music in Australia will be pitch-perfect.
Kristian Dacey, Gareth Davies, Allan Dell, Tomas Francis, Cory Hill, Finn Russell.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
