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Ex British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton names 'obvious choice' for 2025 coach
Two-time British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton has listed Scotland coach Gregor Townsend, England coach Steve Borthwick and Ireland coach Andy Farrell as his three candidates to take charge of the team in 2025, saying Farrell is the “obvious choice”.
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Warren Gatland has overseen the last three series, but ruled himself out of consideration this week, creating plenty of speculation as to who will succeed him in the tour of Australia in two years’ time.
Warburton, who led the Lions to a series win over the Wallabies in 2013 and a drawn series against the All Blacks in 2017, explained why he thinks Farrell is the right man for the job. The Welshman described Farrell as “one of the best coaches I’ve had,” having worked with him during the 2017 tour where Farrell was defence coach.
“You’ve got to look at the home nations and people who have got some Lions experience in the past,” Warburton said to Sky Sports recently.
“The names that come to mind are people like Gregor Townsend, who was assistant coach on the last tour, Steve Borthwick who has been an assistant, and Andy Farrell who has been a defence coach and assistant coach of the Lions as well.
“These three guys will all know what it takes and the pressure of a Lions tour.
“Andy Farrell has the most success as a head coach at international level, and he would be the obvious choice, but he’s got a fantastic role at Ireland with one of the best teams in the world there and they are building something special. Even though they might have fallen at the World Cup quarter-final hurdle, they are going to be a force in world rugby for quite some time.”
Warburton did question though whether Farrell would be willing to step away with his role with Ireland in the same way Gatland did with Wales for potentially a year before the tour. He said: “So whether he wants to relinquish that role for the six-to-12 month period that you need, there’s a lot of conversations that need to be had. But if you were picking it as a fantasy team now, Andy Farrell would be the frontrunner, given the fact he’s been on two tours. He was the defence coach for the two tours I was on, and without doubt one of the best coaches I’ve had.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
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