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'We did an unbelievable amount of outstanding things under Joe... I'd be absolutely foolish not to harness those bits'

By Liam Heagney
Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Andy Farrell cast quite a shadow at Wednesday’s Six Nations tournament launch in London. Lined up alongside his rival coaches, he was left looking down on them all. 

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Same with the imposing way he filled the same top-table chair his contemporaries had each taken their turn occupying at the east-end Tobacco Dock. 

Without doubt, his domineering frame stands out a mile when keeping company. But the pressing question is can he quickly catch the eye for his unproven head coaching ability? 

As large a presence as he has when filling a room, the shoes he is stepping into in Ireland remain enormous. Joe Schmidt’s legacy might not be dating well if a recent caustic remark by someone close to a squad member to RugbyPass is a barometer of the general feeling that exists.

The New Zealander lost his way in 2019, for sure, and the supposedly increasingly restrictive way he ran the squad didn’t reflect well, the flat mood in the camp feeling like a glass of champagne that had lost its fizz.

(Continue reading below…)

The 2020 Six Nations launch in London

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However, Schmidt’s numbers overall during his six-year tenure stacked up impressively – 76 outings, 55 wins, a win ratio of 73 per cent. Farrell was no mug in this department, being along for 41 of Schmidt’s matches and emerging as a winner on 30 occasions (a similar win ratio of 73 per cent). 

The trick now, though, is to forcibly emerge from the shadow of Schmidt, to put his stamp on the overall operation rather than be constrained to a defence coaching remit where Ireland conceded 148 tries on his watch – on average 3.6 per game. 

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Shutting the door tightly is now Simon Easterby’s particular remit, with Farrell now tasked with looking after the sum of all parts and not the one part of the overall sum. His baby steps, though, will be taken with the recent past still very fresh in the mind.

“We did an unbelievable amount of outstanding things under Joe Schmidt and I’d be absolutely foolish not to harness those bits,” he said on Wednesday in response to a RugbyPass query on what sort of style he will look to embed now that he running the whole shooting match. 

“Now, do I have an idea of where I want to take a few little bits of the game under Joe and make them how I want to make them? Of course I do and we will see how we progress with that along the way.”

This warm-weather week training in Portugal then will be critically important in Farrell putting his own spin on things. Three and a half years operating as Schmidt’s sidekick must give way to an air of authority and a belief among the Ireland squad that they can potentially achieve great things under their new boss man. 

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Farrell may have a contract penned through to the 2023 World Cup, but progress must be witnessed in the next year and a half to ensure he doesn’t become a rugby version of football’s David Moyes, who struggled when taking up the mantle at Manchester United after Alex Ferguson called time on his stellar stint in charge. 

The Englishman knows all about the bottom line. “Winning: it matters. We won’t shy away from that,” he admitted, but how he goes about trying to achieve this is of immense importance. He quickly needs to make this a distinctly Farrell operation, not something inherited from Schmidt.

“It’s an all-round game,” he replied when quizzed on what certain aspects must improve if his Ireland are to regain the ground and the reputation lost in 2019 in Schmidt’s final year. “Look, the fundamentals of the game never change. That has got to be at a premium and those fundamentals need to keep developing. 

“You can’t win any rugby game without a good set-piece or without a good defence or without good game understanding, so those aspects of the game need to keep on developing as well. Hmm, attack is always a difficult process because it takes a little bit longer but we want to improve that along the way. It might take a little bit of time but we will get there. We WILL get there. 

“So at the same time we want to keep developing but the key is to make sure that we don’t get too ahead of ourselves, that we don’t stand for something. That is key for us, you know what I mean? 

“Making sure that we come out of each particular game and stand for what we said we were going to stand for in the days before that. I suppose every coach that comes in would like to put their own stamp on the game, but without getting too ahead of ourselves.”

Having only had the players in previously for a 24-hour pow-wow in the lead-up to Christmas, having them at his beck and call for a week in the Portuguese sun before they fly back to Dublin for the February 1 opener versus the Scots is most important. The time is nigh for Farrell to cast his large shadow on proceedings.

WATCH: Andy Goode and Brendan Venter didn’t hold back on this week’s The Rugby Pod as they discussed Saracens and the salary cap scandal

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Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

32 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

32 Go to comments
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