How this Lions tour could help Ireland do something special at the next World Cup
There will be plenty of time to dive into the next stage of the tour in the coming days. The selection permutations for Saturday's rematch in Melbourne, whether Joe Schmidt's side have the capacity to level the series. And so on…
We're in the midst of Lions mania at the moment but if you can take a step back and look at this entire series in a wider context, it's working out very well for Ireland's World Cup ambitions down the line. Will Joe Schmidt's side have the capacity to level the series in the next Test? Pic: INPHO/Tom Maher
Andy Farrell, the sizeable number of Ireland backroom staff and an even greater number of players are all likely to be back in this part of the world in two years' time.
Australia are hosting the next global showpiece and this Lions series has felt like something of a dress rehearsal for what's coming down the line.
We've had a suspicion for quite some time that Farrell has targeted this tour as a key building block towards the next World Cup. There was plenty of criticism aimed at the Ireland head coach when he decided to take a sabbatical and turn his attention towards this project for the best part of a year. We've had a suspicion for quite some time that Farrell has targeted this tour as a key building block towards the next World Cup. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Those noises grew even louder when he decided to bring Simon Easterby, Andrew Goodman, John Fogarty and Johnny Sexton along for the journey, too. Plenty of backroom and support staff got the call as well, including chief analyst Vinny Hammond and Aled Walters, the national team's head of athletic performance.
Meanwhile, Paul O'Connell – the second interim head coach in the space of a year – was cobbling together a makeshift backroom team to take a squad of rookies to Tbilisi and Lisbon. Paul O'Connell has cobbled together a makeshift backroom team to take a squad of rookies to Tbilisi and Lisbon. Pic: INPHO/Matteo Ciambelli
To the critics, it all seemed a bit chaotic and short-sighted. Irish ambitions had been left on the back burner while Farrell and Co focused all their energies on a fairly uninspiring Lions tour against a very limited Australian outfit.
All this upheaval midway through a World Cup cycle. Really?
Farrell has never struck us as someone who makes it up as he goes along. He has unfinished business when it comes to the World Cup.
The class of 2023 felt they were going to do something special in France. If Jordie Barrett hadn't got his arm under Ronan Kelleher in the dying minutes of that frantic quarter-final loss to the All Blacks in Paris, Ireland could have made history at the tournament. Alas, a promising campaign fizzled out at a depressingly familiar juncture. A dejected Bundee Aki after Ireland were eliminated from the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Pic: INPHO/Billy Stickland
Farrell wants to make amends in 2027. It's the reason why he signed a contract extension in December of 2023. There was a school of thought that the 50-year-old was going to call it a day when his previous contract expired in 2025.
It was all seemingly laid out for a nice exit. Farrell, on the back of a stellar World Cup, would hand the reins over to Easterby and O'Connell before focusing his energies on the Lions. The fact he has a book coming out in a few months' time merely solidifies the theory that Farrell wasn't planning to be in charge of Ireland this autumn.
But something changed in his thinking after the last World Cup. The chance to right some wrongs in Australia was a powerful motivator.
Perhaps it changed the way he thought about the Lions as well. Rather than a disruptor of the World Cup masterplan, perhaps it could enhance Ireland's chances next time? It was all seemingly laid out for a nice exit with Farrell handing over the reins to Easterby and O'Connell. Pic: INPHO/Andrew Conan
The man himself made that argument back in March when he confirmed his Ireland-heavy Lions coaching team.
'I understand why you are asking the question,' he said at the time when asked if this Lions project would come at at cost to the national team. 'But first and foremost, it gives me great pleasure that the IRFU are on the same thinking of where I'm at. They are proud and privileged that their coaches, some of them, get the opportunity to take this on board and put their Lions hat on.
'It's one of the reasons why I jumped at the chance as well, the fact that it's going to grow us all, every coach that's part of it, every part of the high-performance staff and up to 80 people that are going on the tour. It's going to make us all bigger, better, stronger for the future.'
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