OTD: Andy Farrell makes career defining decision
Great Britain rugby league captain Andy Farrell switched codes to union and signed for Saracens on this day 19 years ago.
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) confirmed Farrell’s three-year contract with Sarries on March 23, 2005.
Current Ireland head coach Farrell had enjoyed 13 heavily-decorated years at Wigan, winning 34 caps for Great Britain and 11 for England.
RFU chief executive Francis Baron said: “Andrew is an outstanding player who has been a superb ambassador for rugby league on and off the field and we believe that he will do the same in rugby union.
“Wigan and Saracens have been very co-operative and I’d like to thank them for all their help over the last few weeks.”
A string of injuries delayed Farrell’s Saracens debut until 2006 but he went on to make his England bow in the Six Nations the following year.
Injuries continued to hamper Farrell at every turn and he only managed eight caps, although he did go to the 2007 World Cup where defending champions England were beaten finalists.
A successful coaching career followed, with Farrell impressing with Saracens before joining England’s backroom staff in 2012.
Farrell helped the British and Irish Lions to a series win in Australia in 2013 but lost his England job after the 2015 World Cup, where head coach Stuart Lancaster’s side became the worst-performing hosts in tournament history.
The 48-year-old became Ireland defence coach in 2016.
He succeeded Joe Schmidt as head coach following the 2019 World Cup and has led Ireland to back-to-back Six Nations titles, including a Grand Slam in 2023.
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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