Despite Ireland's underwhelming performance in this year's Six Nations, Andy Farrell looks set to double down on his Irish coaching staff when he chooses who'll accompany him Down Under for this Summer's Lions Tour to Australia, with Johnny Sexton a shoo-in to be included in Farrell's staff.
This year's Six Nations was played under the undeniable undercurrent of Lions selection. With every game played, speculation grew over which players would don the famous red jersey this summer.
In the opening rounds, Ireland's stars could have done little different to play themselves into contention, winning the Triple Crown and defeating all three of the Home Nations they are competing against for a coveted spot on the plane to Australia.
However, a humbling defeat at the hands of France, and an uncharacteristically difficult win over Italy in Rome has left an air of uncertainty and brought Ireland's Lions credentials into question.
1 February 2024; Head coach Andy Farrell, left, and Forwards coach Paul O'Connell during an Ireland Rugby captain's run at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, France. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Andy Farrell to back Irish coaches in Lions selection
While the remainder of the club season will dictate much of the player selection, Andy Farrell must now appoint his coaches off the back of the Six Nations, with contracts set to be signed in the coming weeks
According to reports from Daniel Schofield of The Telegraph, Farrell will turn to his tried and tested Irish staff for help Down Under, with no English assistants expected to be included in his ticket.
Irish Rugby's forwards coaching Paul O'Connell and scrum coach John Fogarty are both frontrunners to continue those roles in red.
Johnny Sexton, who only joined Farrell's ticket at the end of last year and is yet to take responsibility for any of the core areas of play, is apparently in the running to be selected by Farrell as the Lions attack coach.
Farrell has already appointed Aled Walters, David Nucifora and Vinny Hammond as head of athletic performance, general manager and head of analysis respectively. Hammond currently performs that role for Ireland, while Nucifora recently left Ireland after working as the country's high-performance director.
The reports also speculate that Simon Easterby could go on tour as defence coach, although his duties in Ireland may preclude him from selection, with either he or O'Connell likely to remain in place nationally for Ireland's summer tour. While France have reportedly ruled out the option of defence coach Shaun Edwards travelling.
It is also expected that there will be a higher variety of representation in the countless background roles which will have to be filled before the start of the tour in June.
If 2025 transpires as previous tours have, the news should bode well for Irish players who will be hoping to travel to Australia this summer.
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