{"id":82552,"date":"2025-05-07T18:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/82552\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T18:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:45:10","slug":"england-legend-touts-andy-farrell-to-lead-british-and-irish-lions-to-success-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/82552\/","title":{"rendered":"England legend touts Andy Farrell to lead British and Irish Lions to success : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Andy Farrell prepares to name his British & Irish Lions squad, former team-mate Jason Robinson has declared: \u201cI always knew he was destined for greatness.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Farrell\u2019s squad for the summer tour of Australia will be announced on Thursday as the\u00a0best players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are selected in a group expected to be around 37 strong.<\/p>\n

\u2018He has transmitted that same desire and will to win to the coaching environment\u2019<\/p>\n

Leading the Lions down under as head coach for the first time marks another hugely significant chapter in the career of the cross-code legend.<\/p>\n

Farrell<\/a> was one of the best players in rugby league alongside Robinson at Wigan before crossing codes to play for Saracens in 2005 and then embarking on a stellar coaching journey.<\/p>\n

He has held roles at Saracens, England, the Lions and as head coach of Ireland, but leading the Lions in Australia will top everything.<\/p>\n

Farrell\u2019s rise comes as no surprise to legendary former England and Lions winger Robinson, who told Planet Rugby: \u201cAs teenagers, Faz and I came through the ranks together at Wigan in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven then, his work ethic, commitment and attention to detail \u2013 and not least what they demanded of himself \u2013 was clear to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has transmitted that same desire and will to win from his playing career to the coaching environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying everything Andy\u2019s done has always been easy because it hasn\u2019t been, but he has built his reputation and what he has now through his strength of character.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just an amazing achievement to see where Faz is now as head coach of the Lions.\u00a0It\u2019s one thing doing it as a player and quite another doing it as a coach \u2013 but that\u2019s where he\u2019s got to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Wigan is a remarkable breeding ground\u2019<\/p>\n

Wigan is a remarkable breeding ground for talent, with some of the finest rugby brains \u2013 players and coaches \u2013 hailing from the town.<\/p>\n

Shaun Edwards, now also one of the most respected coaches in the game, was also a teammate of Robinson and Farrell at Wigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seems like so much of what Shaun and Faz picked up was through Wigan,\u201d added Robinson.<\/p>\n

British and Irish Lions: The six key selection headaches facing Andy Farrell on eve of squad announcement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWigan as a club and a town is just an incredible place for producing some of the best rugby players there have ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1994, our Wigan team went to Australia to play Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Challenge.\u00a0Winning the Rugby World Cup with England in 2003 superseded everything, but, in terms of club games, 1994 in Brisbane was the best I ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShaun and a very young Faz were massive in that game, and they have carried that relentless will to win throughout their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor them, it\u2019s about a consistency in performance, backing it up and not getting complacent.\u00a0You see that now with Faz \u2013 there\u2019s a hunger there, and if you\u2019re going to ask so much of your players, then you have to know what\u2019s needed.\u00a0Faz certainly knows what\u2019s needed to win at the very highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not all fancy stuff, and the reason why Wigan were so successful wasn\u2019t just because we had so many great players.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you can\u2019t tackle, I\u2019m never picking him\u2019 \u2013 Ex-Lion insists Sam Prendergast\u2019s \u2018serious issue\u2019 should rule out tour selection<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was down to us doing the basics so well and pushing each other and fronting up physically \u2013 not missing tackles and backing each other up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seems that this is Shaun and Faz\u2019s approach now as coaches. They can relate to their players because they\u2019re not old dinosaurs.\u00a0They understand the challenges and how tough it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat coaches and leaders know how to get the best out of players.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s different \u2013 some players need an arm around them and others a kick up the backside \u2013 and while Faz and Shaun are serious about their work, they still have a cheeky edge to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey enjoy having a laugh, but it\u2019s very much work first with hours of video analysis and working on the basics, whether it\u2019s passing, tackling or kicking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy, I\u2019m sure, will be around for a long time to come, and I wish him every success for the Lions<\/a> tour this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got so much respect for him in getting that position. I\u2019d back him to thrive and be a huge success, like everything else he has done before in his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: British and Irish Lions: Our final 39-man touring party ahead of squad announcement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Andy Farrell prepares to name his British & Irish Lions squad, former team-mate Jason Robinson has declared:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[6162,748,5313,393,4884,225,522,39950,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-82552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-international","15":"tag-jason-robinson","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82552","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=82552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}