After such an electric period between late 2021 and mid-2024, things have not been as plain sailing for Andy Farrell’s Ireland of late.
Back-to-back Six Nations titles in 2023 and 2024 bookended a heartbreaking World Cup campaign in ’23, while a series win in New Zealand and draw in South Africa stood out as superb achievements.
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However, the spark that made that great team tick is undeniably gone, and Ireland have struggled to re-capture their form ever since the disappointing 2024 autumn internationals.
Last year’s Six Nations hammering at the hands of France has unfortunately proven a sign of things to come rather than a blip for Ireland, with comfortable defeats to New Zealand, South Africa, and France again (a fortnight ago) coming in the following 12 months.
The first of those four defeats, to France in Dublin last March, happened without Farrell in the coaches’ box, as he prepared to lead the Lions on tour in Australia.
Farrell would deliver a historic series victory Down Under, but one of his key calls on that Lions tour has been slated by English journalist Oliver Brown, who went so far as to suggest it could be to blame for Ireland’s recent decline.
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English journalist blames Farrell for Ireland struggles
20 February 2026; Head coach Andy Farrell, right, and forwards coach Paul O’Connell during an Ireland Rugby captain’s run at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, England. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Oliver Brown, chief sports writer in the Telegraph, believes Ireland’s decline may have been accelerated by Andy Farrell’s decision to bring almost all of his assistant coaches with him to Australia with the Lions, rather than allowing them to focus on Ireland’s tour of Georgia and Portugal.
Five of the current Ireland coaching staff were in Australia; Farrell, Simon Easterby, John Fogarty, Andrew Goodman, and Johnny Sexton.
In his column this week, Brown questioned why Farrell’s decision was not mentioned as one of the key reasons for Ireland’s downturn in form over the past 12 months.
He noted that the Irish fly-half and scrum coaches (Sexton and Fogarty) were both Down Under rather than working with the Irish squad on what have now become problem areas.
One factor yet to receive much attention…is Farrell’s sabbatical to lead the Lions, in which he took virtually the entire Irish coaching staff on tour to Australia.
At the time, the Irish Rugby Football Union were fully supportive of the arrangement […] The logic was that everything would be so seamless, you would not even see the join, with Farrell relinquishing Ireland duties to his faithful lieutenants before picking up the reins as if he had never been away. It would be fair to reflect that these predictions were premature. After all, Ireland’s primary areas of weakness today correlate almost exactly to the specialist expertise they lost last summer to the Lions.
It’s a bold suggestion, but Farrell’s reliance on his fellow Ireland coaches did rankle a few punters last summer.
Brown has not spoken fondly of Ireland in the past, and this is not the first Lions call made by Andy Farrell that has rubbed the Telegraph writer the wrong way.
When Farrell named his Lions squad last year, Brown took a pop at the “foreign” Irish players he had selected, taking specific pops at James Lowe, Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park.
Andy Farrell has a big chance to make a statement that his Ireland team are not yet done when they face England at Twickenham on Saturday. Kick-off is at 2:10pm.
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