{"id":225684,"date":"2025-06-30T04:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T04:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/225684\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T04:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T04:07:11","slug":"andy-farrell-backed-to-lead-british-irish-lions-to-series-glory-in-australia-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/225684\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell backed to lead British & Irish Lions to series glory in Australia : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Farrell has received a ringing endorsement from former team-mate and coach Denis Betts as he prepares to lead the British & Irish Lions into their Test series against Australia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Farrell was coming through the ranks as a teenager at his hometown club Wigan, Betts was already well established as one of the best back-rowers in world rugby league.<\/p>\n

Betts, 55, was a key figure in the all-conquering Wigan side who won eight successive Challenge Cups between 1988 and 1995.<\/p>\n

Remarkable career<\/p>\n

Farrell<\/a>, meanwhile, made his debut in 1991 aged 16 and became one of the greatest players of his generation before switching codes to join Saracens in 2005 and then embarking on a remarkable coaching career.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a very young age, Andrew was always a leader and a student of the game,\u201d Betts told Planet Rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never inevitable that he would go on to be as successful as he has been as a player and a coach because you have to work hard to put yourself in that situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s no surprise to see how far he\u2019s come and where he is now \u2013 as head coach of the British & Irish Lions \u2013 is just fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalent is okay if you\u2019ve not got hard work as part of your make-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re willing to match your talent with hard work like Andrew always has done, then that can be very powerful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly been the case with him because he never wasted an ounce of his talent when he was a player and he\u2019s shown the same kind of drive as a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of my association with Andrew during our time together at Wigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter playing together, he was my captain in the Wigan side that I coached for nearly a year and a half.<\/p>\n

Blair Kinghorn\u2019s \u2018weird\u2019 verdict on Lions tour and his message for Jack Willis<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Lions land in Brisbane but delay giving an update on the injured Tomos Williams<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud to call him my friend and to see him where he is now, ready to lead the British & Irish Lions<\/a> into battle against Australia, is quite remarkable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s brilliant and, in coaching terms, it doesn\u2019t get any bigger but like I say it\u2019s testament to his talent, dedication and desire to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I\u2019d back Andrew to come away with a series win against Australia this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having begun his coaching career at Wigan, Betts switched codes to join Gloucester in 2006 as a skills coach before leaving in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely loved my time at Gloucester,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really working-class environment and the fans are very similar to rugby league fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great time for me to learn and develop under Dean Ryan, a fantastic head coach and leader who I learnt so much from.<\/p>\n

\u201cBryan Redpath was another exceptionally talented coach, and Carl Hogg was a real master of his craft. It was just brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts is now back at Wigan as coach of their women\u2019s team \u2013 leading them to Challenge Cup glory over St Helens at Wembley earlier this month \u2013 but remains close to the likes of Farrell and Shaun Edwards.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s great to see a number of lads who learnt their trade at Wigan go on to achieve great things in the coaching ranks.<\/p>\n

Proud of Shaun Edwards<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of Shaun Edwards and I think it\u2019s fantastic what he\u2019s done and how much he\u2019s achieved in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m massively proud to have been in the same team as Shaun and be associated with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Mike Forshaw as well since we were schoolboys because he\u2019s the same age as me and we joined Wigan at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done great things as a rugby union coach as well so I\u2019m really proud of what he\u2019s achieved too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWigan is an elite environment and an amazing breeding ground, so it\u2019s no surprise that so many people who came through there have gone on to do so well for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see guys like Farrell and Edwards, the inspire you and make you strive to be like them and be around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: British and Irish Lions player ratings: \u2018Outrageous\u2019 Henry Pollock stars in \u2018marvellous\u2019 back-row while Mack Hansen blows hot and cold<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell has received a ringing endorsement from former team-mate and coach Denis Betts as he prepares to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[6162,5313,225,522,12,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-225684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114770348855188433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}