{"id":368246,"date":"2026-03-27T15:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/368246\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:32:07","slug":"ireland-head-coach-andy-farrell-not-talking-to-rfu-about-england-role-at-present-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/368246\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland head coach Andy Farrell not talking to RFU about England role \u2018at present\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

English Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney insists there has been no contact with Ireland<\/a> head coach Andy Farrell<\/a> as part of England\u2019s<\/a> succession planning for the time beyond next year\u2019s World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sweeney has indicated that current head coach Steve Borthwick<\/a> will be given the summer tour to orchestrate a revival following an abject Six Nations<\/a> campaign which saw England finish fifth having suffered four successive defeats.<\/p>\n

If Borthwick delivers a satisfactory return against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in July, he will be in a position to see out his contract until Australia 2027 when it expires.<\/p>\n

Farrell\u2019s deal with Ireland also ends after the global showpiece and he revealed in the wake of the Six Nations that talks over an extension with the IRFU<\/a> will begin soon.<\/p>\n

The head coach of last year\u2019s British and Irish Lions tour would be the standout candidate to take over at Twickenham should it be decided by either Borthwick or the RFU that change is needed, but no discussions have taken place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s under contract to the 2027 World Cup,\u201d Sweeney said of Farrell. \u201cWe\u2019re not in a dialogue. We\u2019re not in a discussion with him at the present.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review of England\u2019s Six Nations campaign will be completed by the end of next month and is being conducted by an anonymous panel of figures drawn from inside and outside the RFU with Sweeney, director of performance rugby Conor O\u2019Shea and non-executive director Ben Kay among those involved.<\/p>\n

Players and Borthwick\u2019s assistant coaches are also being canvassed for their opinions on why the same team that registered their 12th successive victory when routing Wales in round one then collapsed to their worst ever Six Nations performance.<\/p>\n

Although the review has yet to reach any conclusions on the events of the past few weeks, Sweeney\u2019s inclination is to give Borthwick more time with England\u2019s stirring performance against France in the climax to the tournament pointing to a brighter future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of noise out there,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take emotion out of the equation. You just look at it purely in terms of: What was the performance? What were the issues? Why did they arise? And how do we fix them?<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the outcome being for us to make sure we have got the right support mechanisms in place to address them and support Steve to get that right going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really focused on seeing progress again and seeing better and more consistent performances. That is the focus \u2013 it\u2019s not a set number of wins or a percentage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about getting back to the way we were playing. Steve talks about playing big. That has been the intention and you saw that against France.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still think this is an extremely strong squad that has got the potential and capability to do some really good things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"English Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney insists there has been no contact with Ireland head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25747,59241,61,60,1449,12917,43,57128],"class_list":{"0":"post-368246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-england-rugby","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-ireland-rugby","13":"tag-irfu","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-steve-borthwick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}