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There are two public images of Andy Farrell. One of them is the rugby union player who made a dazzling debut for Wigan Warriors aged just 16 and burst onto the international scene with Great Britain two years later at during a distinguished career in the 13-a-side code. The other is the astute and serious head coach of the Irish rugby union team.
Yet Joe Schmidt saw another side of Farrell, one that goes some way to explaining the 49-year-old’s remarkable rise to become the northern hemisphere’s pre-eminent head coach and the first Englishman to take charge the British and Irish Lions for the tour. from Australia next summer since Sir Clive Woodward in 2005.
Schmidt first met Farrell when he had just moved to rugby union at Saracens, while the New Zealander was visiting fellow Kiwis Taine Randell and Glen Jackson at the Premiership club.
“He was playing for Saracens, I was catching up with some of the Kiwi guys and Dimes [Steve Diamond] “I was coaching them at that stage,” recalls Schmidt, the former Ireland head coach who was parachuted into the Australia post earlier this year with the specific mission of making the Wallabies a competitive force again in the moment of the Lions tour. “He impressed me at the time even though he was injured at the time.”
By the time Schmidt had been appointed Ireland head coach in 2013 after guiding Leinster to back-to-back Heineken Cup titles, Farrell was already a managerial rival as an England assistant, having been recruited by Stuart Lancaster the previous year to become defense coach. .
Ireland held the balance of power heading into the 2015 World Cup, winning the Six Nations title in 2014 and 2015, but Schmidt held England in high regard.
“I think they got second place four years in a row at the Six Nations and we won a few narrowly,” Schmidt added. “So there wasn’t much to it. I met Stuart and Andy through this competition.
England’s group stage exit at the 2015 World Cup resulted in Farrell losing his job when Eddie Jones took over from Lancaster, but it proved a defining moment for Schmidt and Farrell.
When Farrell contacted Schmidt to catch up, the New Zealander, with encouragement from Johnny Sexton, the Irish fly-half who had worked with Farrell on the Lions tour of Australia in 2013, acted quickly and without delay.
He was hired as Ireland’s new defense coach three weeks after leaving England.
“He actually just messaged me and said it would be nice to catch up,” Schmidt recalled. “And I thought it would be Really it’s good to catch up and it was great to have him on board.
Farrell moved his family to Dublin to demonstrate his commitment to his new role and he quickly became a key figure in Schmidt’s Ireland. In his first year working with Schmidt, Ireland recorded their first ever victory against New Zealand, in Chicago.
Ireland then recorded their first victory against the All Blacks on Irish soil two years later, having completed the Grand Slam by beating Jones’ England side with a tactical masterclass in arctic conditions as the winter storm ” beast from the east” struck Twickenham.
Farrell mixes playfulness and technical genius
“It was freezing cold at the Six Nations but Faz and Feeky [Greg Feeky] said they would shave their beards if we won the Grand Slam,” Schmidt recalls. “They did it and I said to him afterwards: ‘Honestly Faz, you could play – you look like a boy!’ He just looked so young without it.
It was this unseen playfulness of Farrell, along with his technical genius, that proved to be such an important ingredient in a Schmidt regime that could be intense and rich in detail.
“First and foremost, he’s a great guy and we’d be friends anyway, but I respect his coaching abilities tremendously,” Schmidt added. “He brings a real clarity and energy to his coach’s performance and that trickles down to the whole team and the boys love working with him. I loved working with them.
“A lot of people bring positive energy, but players also want clarity because there is so much unknown about the game and players are nervous about the bounce of a ball or what could happen. Andy brings that clarity.
“The second thing is he’s a good conversationalist. He really cares about people, so he’s interested in them. I think if you have those fundamentals, the one that probably underlies it all is trust. Andy Farrell, there is a consistency to him.
“He’s a ‘say it, do it’ type character and so players know there are consequences if they don’t work hard or do things right. He will ask for account to people. I’m not trying to give this guy a teddy bear image, you know, because he’s far from that.
But sometimes, it was his interpersonal skills that served as a relief valve to ease the pressure on the players. “Having fun is a very important part of it. For example, the Kearney brothers [Rob and Dave] had participated in an advertising campaign on milk. Andy gave very serious defensive feedback to the players.
“There would be maybe three or four images saying, ‘This is what we delivered well,’ and then all of a sudden he would say, ‘Ah sorry boys, intermission,’ and that would be the advert with Kearney boys selling milk.
“The boys would roll around laughing and then come back. The boys love it because you sit in this pressure cooker all the time.
“Having that relief valve is so important”
“What I loved about it was having good staff who could do it better than me. I know it’s an intense situation to be in a test match moment that matters, and it really is for everyone, and to achieve that there has to be intensity in the preparation. But having that relief valve is so important.
“Faz does that very well, with the other side of the responsibility. And he really cares about others.
“I think he’s a great mix for a head coach and a great mix for a member of a coaching staff, because Faz has no ego. He’s not going to stand out and beat his chest if something goes well.
Which brings us to Saturday, when Farrell faces Schmidt for the first time as head coach as Ireland look to cap their 150th anniversary celebrations with victory over Australia in Dublin.
It is suspected the pair, friends who brought the best out of each other during their brilliant coaching journeys, will also be desperate to deal a psychological blow in what is the Wallabies’ final test match before facing the Lions in Brisbane next July.
