David Humphreys: Andy Farrell Lions sabbatical an 'exciting opportunity' for someone to step up

It is a track record that made him the obvious choice to take charge of the Lions for their 2025 Tour to Australia and a three-Test series against Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies. Yet it will require Farrell to step back from his day job for next year’s Six Nations and new IRFU Performance Director Humphreys will sit down with the head coach after the Springbok series to discuss his temporary replacement.

Defence coach Simon Easterby was last week named as head coach for this October’s Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa, when a development squad will play the Pumas, Australia’s Western Force and the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein. It is a repeat of the autumn 2022 tour in which Easterby led fellow senior assistants Paul O’Connell, Mike Catt and John Fogarty and the former Scarlet head coach could be the frontrunner to lead Ireland into the 2025 Six Nations.

Whoever gets the gig, Humphreys, who succeeded David Nucifora as Performance Director on June 1, believes the championship could be the ideal audition for someone to eventually succeed Farrell as men’s national team head coach.

“It's a very exciting opportunity for someone to step in,” Humphreys said. “You talk about coaching succession, this will give us a chance to bring someone else in at a very important time for the national team and test them in probably the highest pressure environment in the Six Nations.

“Andy's away for six months but he'll still be very much involved in that process of who's going to come in. After South Africa, we're planning to sit down and look at how we're going to run the next season.” 

With Catt departing his role as attack coach after the summer tour, current Leinster assistant Andrew Goodman is set to succeed him on Farrell’s backroom staff and on the Emerging Ireland tour ahead of the Autumn Nations Series of November Tests against the All Blacks, Argentina, Fiji and Australia. It will be Farrell’s final hands-on interaction before his Lions sabbatical and Humphreys has not discounted bringing in assistance from the provinces to complete the Six Nations coaching team.

Current Connacht head coach and then assistant Pete Wilkins was drafted onto Farrell’s ticket for the 2022 New Zealand tour when Ireland also played games against the Maori All Blacks although that was during the provincial close season not midway through a URC campaign as it will be next term. Humphreys, though, did not rule out a similar short-term appointment.

“That will be part of the discussion of course. Once we knew who's coming to come in and fill Andy's shoes on an interim basis, we'll then look at the overall make-up of the coaching team if that requires some other expertise, we'll work at whether that comes from within or outside. That's a decision for a few months' time.” 

Humphreys, speaking at the launch of the IRFU’s Strategic Plan for 2024-29 last week, also backed the return of Ireland A internationals on the back of success of the 2022 Emerging Ireland tour providing a stepping stone for the likes of Jack Crowley, Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash to graduate to the Test team. Farrell will travel to South Africa this summer with eight of that 2022 squad in his 35-player squad.

Ireland A’s game against a New Zealand XV at the RDS in November 22 was a first outing in seven years and Humphreys wants more frequent opportunities for an Irish second string.

"It's certainly got a value, the one piece that's come out of Emerging Ireland is the huge value that the senior coaches have had in terms of getting a really good insight into how the players, not just play because they can see that in the video or by turning up at the game, but by how they approach and prepare for training, their analysis.

"It works both ways, the players then see what's required and what the expectation is from those senior coaches.

"So, it has certainly benefited that group of players and when you look at the World Cup and some of the impact those young players have had it certainly served its purpose.

"I do see a real value in A-team rugby, just being that step up and also taking certain players out of a system where they're very comfortable and challenging them by coaching, by who they're playing against."

The new Performance Director also confirmed he was seeking space in the calendar for an Interprovincial A team competition, adding: "Over the last month we looked at having six games for the 'A' teams, we want to make it much more formal than it's been, so we don't have teams pulling out at the last minute or players coming in from club rugby at the last minute, disturbing what club rugby looks like.

"We will have a structure in place, it's just working out where that sits especially with Emerging Ireland coming up. If we can get six weekends, we'll for sure be bringing that formalised piece and have the province taking it seriously."