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”.

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.

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“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.”