When Andy Farrell took cost of Eire after the 2019 World Cup, Joe Schmidt’s erstwhile defensive specialist confronted calls to radically overhaul a group that had clearly dropped from a substantial peak.
In 2018, Eire had received a Six Nations Grand Slam and crushed New Zealand in Dublin as a part of an autumn clear sweep.
By the point Farrell took over, England had punctured a Manu Tuilagi-shaped gap of their finest laid World Cup plans earlier than they received to the match and had been shocked by Japan within the pool levels earlier than the All Blacks exacted revenge within the quarter-final.
Then, having been the top coach in ready for a 12 months, there was a sense that Farrell’s affiliation with the earlier ticket noticed his tenure begin on the backfoot.
But, by the point of his first recreation in cost in February 2020, Farrell resisted any temptation to implement a significant break from the Schmidt regime, his greatest choice calls revolving round changing retired veterans Rob Kearney and Rory Finest.
Whereas handing a world debut to Caelan Doris was a nod to the long run, the naming of the then 34-year-old Johnny Sexton as his captain was a transparent indication of a give attention to the right here and now.
As Eire muddled by means of a pair of third-place Six Nations campaigns disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Farrell remained steadfast in his strategy of evolution quite than revolution and was rewarded for his religion with a historic sequence win in New Zealand in 2022 and a Six Nations Grand Slam the subsequent 12 months.
Within the wake of Thursday’s humbling defeat by France in Paris to start out the 2026 Six Nations nonetheless, Farrell has confronted the strongest calls since these earliest days of his tenure to dramatically overhaul the group.
With Italy in Dublin on Saturday afternoon, will the top coach stick or twist?
