It was confirmed earlier this week that Andy Farrell will be sticking around as Ireland head coach for the foreseeable future, with the 48-year old agreeing a new deal with the IRFU that will keep him in charge until 2027. While there is now certainty surrounding that particular role, there will be some changes to other areas of the coaching staff moving forward.
Mike Catt has received a huge amount of praise for his work as the Ireland attack coach in recent times, although he is set to leave the role in 2024. Catt will leave the setup after the team's tour to South Africa next summer.
His replacement has already been confirmed, with Andrew Goodman set to join the team for the 2024/25 season. He will leave his role as Leinster backs coach in order to move into the test setup.
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All Blacks winger praises new Ireland coach
A native of New Zealand, Andrew Goodman joined Leinster in 2022. Prior to that, he had a spell as an assistant with Crusaders. It seems he made quite the impact on some players at the club.
Speaking to the Crusaders' YouTube channel, All Blacks winger Leicester Fainga’anuku summed up what Goodman did for him during their time together with the team.
From the early stages of my career, I have been fortunate to have two special brothers, up in Tasman at the time.
The Goodman brothers, Chris Goodman, Andrew Goodman. I was real fortunate at a young age, they’re two massive icons of my life that I really looked up to, for them to put me under their wings was something special.
So going up the ranks I had Andrew Goodman as something of a mentor on the field, helping with my skills, training-wise. Anything game-related...
I’ve had some awesome coaches here at the Crusaders. Man where do I even begin; Ronan O’Gara, obviously Andrew Goodman and now over the last few years with Tamati Ellison, Scott Hansen and Razor (Scott Robertson).
They’re not your everyday coach, where they can come across as coaches or similar to coaches you’ve had before. But I think with these guys, they’re who they are and I think that’s what makes it so special, you really love that.
Andrew Goodman will hope to finish off his time at Leinster with some trophies in the months ahead, before moving linking up with the Ireland coaching team in autumn of 2024.
It will be interesting to see how he fares in his new role.
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