Kieran Shannon: Many Irish rugby relationships eventually strained. Not Farrell and Schmidt.

The host of new rugby books released in the last year tell us plenty about the dynamic between Andy Farrell and Joe Schmidt

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell, left, and Australia head coach Joe Schmidt before the Autumn Nations Series match between Ireland and Australia at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

About as intriguing a passage as any in Andy Farrell’s fine new autobiography explains how he steeled himself as Ireland’s new defence coach to persuade Joe Schmidt that he should fundamentally change how Ireland set up. As Farrell bluntly puts it in The Only Way I Know, “My ideas on defence were the opposite of his.” 

Schmidt had been reared on the New Zealand method of defence where the emphasis was on watching the man. Farrell felt Ireland should switch to a defensive system heavily influenced by his own years playing rugby league where it was all about watching the ball.