Paul O’Connell has questioned whether he’d be ready to assist Andy Farrell on next year’s Lions tour to Australia if asked. The Ireland forwards coach, who toured three times in the famous red jersey and captained the squad in 2009, has been linked with a role on the head coach’s ticket. However, in an exclusive interview with Joe Molloy on the new Indo Sport podcast, the Munster legend outlined his reservations about taking on a role.
Simon Easterby will step up to run the Ireland set-up when Farrell takes a sabbatical after the November internationals and O’Connell will be a key part of that team during the Six Nations. However, Farrell will surely be tempted to include a coach of O’Connell’s renown on his backroom team; especially given his status as a former player who can command a room and have instant respect among the players. It may take a little arm-twisting first.
“I don’t know, I don’t know if I’d be…certain coaches would go on that and they’d be really confident, they’d be doing it longer than I’d be,” O’Connell said.
“I think it would be a tough tour, you’ve two games a week, different countries coming together. Lions coaching, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards did such a good job with it under Ian McGeechan in 2009, they simplified the game so much that within two, three training sessions we knew what we stood for.
“You need to be coaching a long time to be able to simplify things, there’s a real skill-set in simplifying the game, they did a great job with that. I don’t know if I’d be there yet.
“Listen, it’s not easy – Lions coaching is not easy. Players are in their clubs, their countries, they’ve a way they believe in. They meet you for two, three weeks and they might not get selected in some of them and they start chirping… you really have to know what you stand for and how you’re going to go about it.”
O’Connell's Time With Ireland
Regardless of whether he goes to Australia or sticks with Ireland for their as yet unconfirmed tour of Georgia and Romania, O’Connell believes that period will “stimulate” the Ireland squad and coaching ticket, leaving them in a better position when Farrell returns and thoughts turn towards the 2027 World Cup.
“We did the Emerging Tour two years ago, a dry run, and it is a little bit different, because you can’t do it the exact same way without Andy,” he said before he left for South Africa with the current Emerging Ireland squad who play the Pumas today.
“We’ve a pretty good idea of what works for us, I’m sure it’ll evolve a little bit but not massively.”
“It’ll be good for us as coaches, it will be good for the players because it will be different and when he comes back it’ll be different again because he will have garnered a whole host of experiences with the Lions. In terms of stimulating everyone, it’ll be great for everyone going forward.”
O'Connell's Coaching Philosophy
O’Connell’s appointment to Farrell’s Ireland coaching ticket in 2021 was described by Johnny Sexton as “the final piece of the jigsaw”, with the former second-row credited with an improvement in training standards, discipline and rucking. He freely admits there were creative tensions with backs coach Mike Catt when he first came on board, but says the friction among the coaches, policed by Farrell, is a good thing for the team.
“It’s great to learn different ways of doing it and marry the two or three or four of them together,” he said.
“I think we’ve great balance in the coaching group, because my way of doing it only would probably drive people mad. Mike Catt’s way of doing it only would drive people mad, Andy’s way of doing it only would drive them mad.
“But if you’ve a group of people who want to figure it out together, to thrash things out over conversations and present something pretty united to the players; you’re in a good place.
“We didn’t really row, you’d just always try and be as clear as you could. We weren’t always as clear as we could have been.
“You can’t do a lot of exploration in international rugby; we come together and we have 12 days before we have to be a team. They’ve been all in with the provinces, you’ve to be pretty clear in how you do things.
“At the same time, you want to stick with what you believe in but you have to understand that the guy over there has a different way and you’ve to figure it out. We were good at doing that, Andy was good at refereeing that.”
The Lineout Challenge
The one black mark on O’Connell’s report card was the drop-off in lineout performance at last year’s World Cup, when the set-piece dipped under pressure at the worst possible time. Statistically, it was ranked 13th at the 20-team tournament.
Molloy asked O’Connell about an exchange with Farrell at half-time of the New Zealand quarter-final, which many observers interpreted as the head coach rebuking his forwards coach.
However, he says that wasn’t the case and defended the set-piece overall.
“Someone said that to me, no definitely not,” he said of the exchange. “I can’t remember what it was, but it wouldn’t have been that [sort yourself out there]. He might have been thinking that, but he’d never say it.
“You’d nearly rather they did [turn and look at you when things go wrong]. The three best defensive lineouts in the world would be ourselves, South Africa and New Zealand. You saw in the World Cup final, neither South Africa nor New Zealand could barely win a lineout off each other.
“South Africa gambled on a few things against us and caught us in that South Africa game and it was brilliant what the players did, because we lost the first four in a row and as a lineout caller I’d a few days like that and it was really tough.
“But, in fairness to the lineout callers and Rónan Kelleher, they got it back on track and finished the game strongly, they might have stolen one more in that game and we might have had one crooked throw.
“It was excellent, we won the game, and then against New Zealand, I think we lost three in that game and, one of them, off the lost lineout, we high-tackled and from that high tackle they kick to the corner and score a try.
“You could say the lineout cost us, but we scored a maul try in that game. We scored another try off a maul in that game, so it’s sometimes hard to grade where your lineout is good or bad.
“You could lose three lineouts in a game, but you could score two maul tries in the same game and say, ‘Well, you operated at 70 per cent but we scored two maul tries and didn’t concede a maul try…’
“So, it’s hard to grade exactly, but in that New Zealand game we weren’t helped in getting off to a poor start in our lineout; we got the ball back, but we didn’t get to run the plays that we wanted to run.
“Generally, the plays Catty had – we got something out of them, when we got good ball.”
The Lions' Challenge
The Ireland forwards coach, who has toured three times with the Lions and captained the squad in 2009, has been rumored as a potential addition to the head coach’s team.
“I don’t know, I don’t know if I’d be…certain coaches would go on that and they’d be really confident, they’d be doing it longer than I’d be,” O’Connell said in an interview with Joe Molloy on the new Indo Sport podcast.
“I think it would be a tough tour, you’ve two games a week, different countries coming together. Lions coaching, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards did such a good job with it under Ian McGeechan in 2009, they simplified the game so much that within two, three training sessions we knew what we stood for.
“You need to be coaching a long time to be able to simplify things, there’s a real skill-set in simplifying the game, they did a great job with that. I don’t know if I’d be there yet.
“Listen, it’s not easy – Lions coaching is not easy. Players are in their clubs, their countries, they’ve a way they believe in.
“They meet you for two, three weeks and they might not get selected in some of them and they start chirping… you really have to know what you stand for and how you’re going to go about it.”
O’Connell’s comments have sparked debate among rugby fans, with some suggesting that he is being too modest and that his experience with Ireland would make him a valuable asset to the Lions. Others have argued that he is right to be cautious, as Lions coaching is a very demanding role that requires a high level of experience and expertise.
Only time will tell whether O’Connell will be part of the Lions’ coaching team for the Australia tour, but his doubts about the role have certainly added another intriguing layer to what is already shaping up to be a fascinating tour.
