{"id":135260,"date":"2025-10-21T04:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T04:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135260\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T04:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T04:06:07","slug":"an-absorbing-insight-into-the-mind-of-a-leader-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135260\/","title":{"rendered":"An absorbing insight into the mind of a leader \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Only Way I Know<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Author:<\/strong> Andy Farrell with Gavin Mairs<\/p>\n

ISBN-13:<\/strong> 978-1844886784<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Sandycove <\/p>\n

Guideline Price:<\/strong> \u00a325 <\/p>\n

As a chubby 10-year-old, Andy Farrell<\/a> was on a rugby<\/a> league team who were collected for training in a clapped-out minibus driven by their Orrell St James coach. Cannily, this meant the boys had no excuse for not attending. Yet the coach\u2019s commitment made a lasting impression on Farrell, who loved the banter and how the experience bonded the team together. It\u2019s just one story in this vivid and absorbing book that illustrates how the values learned early in life have infused Farrell\u2019s coaching philosophy.<\/p>\n

His infectious desire that his teams inspire their community also stems from childhood, and his account of growing up in Wigan is engaging. Farrell\u2019s loyalty to Wigan is matched by his passion for rugby league (\u201ccut-throat\u201d, \u201cbrutal\u201d), a passion shared by the whole town. The rivalry between Wigan and other northern \u201cleague\u201d clubs like Salford and St Helens is savage. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Andy Farrell interview: From timid boy to leader of men, his secret is leaning into discomfortOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Memorably comparing the intensity to that of the Leinster Schools Senior Cup, Farrell revels in the game\u2019s ferocity and the antagonism of its supporters, who occasionally take the law into their own hands. During an under-15 game, his mother invades the pitch to extract Farrell from a brawl, whacking opponents with an umbrella. When Salford fans sing unprintable insults about her son, she beards the Salford chairman in his den. <\/p>\n

Years later, Farrell\u2019s wife Colleen rings her husband; their son Owen<\/a> is being abused from the sideline during a match, and at one stage an opposing parent pushes Owen \u2013 aged 11 \u2013 to the ground. In another under-age game Colleen runs on to calm an enraged and vengeful Owen, before persuading the referee to send him and his tormentor off. <\/p>\n

Farrell\u2019s talent and leadership qualities were evident from an early age. At 14 (6ft 2in, 89kg) he trained with Wigan seniors; within two years he was playing for them. Intriguingly, Farrell knew at 16 that he wanted someday to be a coach, and began keeping notes of what tactics worked \u2013 or didn\u2019t. His playing career was remarkable: he captained Wigan aged 20, becoming Britain\u2019s youngest captain a few months later. While his transition to rugby union was marred by injury, he played for England before becoming their defence coach, and then moving to Ireland<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Family matters enormously to Farrell. A notable element of his thinking as coach is that players\u2019 families are included in events, so the players feel supported and can share the experience with loved ones. <\/p>\n

His relationship with Owen is another fascinating theme. Born four months after Farrell\u2019s 16th birthday, Owen shows an affinity for league and football \u2013 he has trials for Manchester United \u2013 before committing to rugby union. During their time together at Saracens, in one game Andy is subbed off for his son. Owen inherits his father\u2019s ability and work ethic, but Farrell is disgusted by the abuse his son receives from so-called fans. <\/p>\n

Farrell contends that unlike the \u201cmore respectful\u201d Irish public, England has a history of knocking players. The persecution that forces Owen to step back from international rugby is painful for them both. Uniquely among current international rugby coaches, Farrell faces the dilemma of whether to select his son. There\u2019s a moving account of Farrell asking Owen to be part of the 2025 Lions<\/a> squad. In tears, Owen refuses, concerned at how the fallout would affect him, his father and the squad. (Later, Owen agrees to join up as a replacement). <\/p>\n

The book is more revealing about Farrell than Joe Schmidt\u2019s Ordinary Joe<\/a>, perhaps because of judicious probing by Gavin Mairs, who \u201chelped get my story out of me\u201d. However, there are no new insights into Ireland\u2019s successes \u2013 and failures \u2013 under his reign. Farrell is the current Irish coach, so it\u2019s perhaps understandable that he does not criticise his employer or players he\u2019s still coaching. Not one for regrets (\u201clife is always about tomorrow\u201d), he\u2019s clear-eyed and unsentimental: \u201cPeople want sport to be a fairy tale, but it never is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AndyAndy Farrell before the Ireland and Scotland Six Nations match at the Aviva last March. Photograph: Tim Clayton\/Corbis via Getty Images <\/p>\n

What\u2019s striking is his voracious appetite for hard work, his need to keep challenging himself (\u201cIf you haven\u2019t got pressure, life isn\u2019t worth living\u201d), and his empathetic willingness to trust players to be themselves. His bluff demeanour conceals a dry wit: on hearing players proclaim what \u201cfun\u201d it is in camp, Farrell wonders ruefully if people will think they\u2019re \u201csoft\u201d. <\/p>\n

Honesty, clarity, dedication, grit and the respect of one\u2019s peers (\u201cthe only currency that matters\u201d); if these values seem old-fashioned, they are what made Farrell the success he is, and the standards to which he holds his high-achieving \u2013 and happy \u2013 teams. The boy in the Wigan minibus has come a long way. <\/p>\n

John O\u2019Donnell\u2019s short story collection Mr Hoo and other stories will be published by Doire Press in 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Only Way I Know Author: Andy Farrell with Gavin Mairs ISBN-13: 978-1844886784 Publisher: Sandycove Guideline Price: \u00a325…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[70904,1879,359,18,80725,117,19,17,34132,64661,70905,80724],"class_list":{"0":"post-135260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-book-reviews","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-england-rugby","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-ireland-rugby","17":"tag-joe-schmidt","18":"tag-lions-tour","19":"tag-owen-farrell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}