2.jpg) Farrell in 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Andrew David Farrell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1975-05-30)30 May 1975 (age 50) Wigan, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relative(s) | Owen Farrell (son) Phil Farrell (brother) Liam Farrell (cousin) Connor Farrell (cousin) Sean O'Loughlin (brother-in-law) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Loose forward, Second-row | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rugby player | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Andrew David Farrell (born 30 May 1975) is an English professionalrugby union coach and formerrugby league and rugby union player. Farrell has beenhead coach of theIreland national rugby union team since 2019.[1][2][3]
Farrell earned 34 caps forGreat Britain and 11 forEngland in rugby league, including the1995 and2000 World Cups, and 8 forEngland in rugby union, including the2007 World Cup.
He was agoal-kickingloose forward in rugby league, who played forWigan between 1991 and 2004, winning six Championships and fourChallenge Cups, as well as theMan of Steel award twice. He frequently captained Wigan, England and Great Britain. In rugby union, he played forSaracens from 2005 to 2009, mostly as acentre.
After retiring as a player, Farrell continued in rugby union as a coach, working as an assistant coach with Saracens, Munster, England, Ireland and theBritish and Irish Lions. He became head coach of Ireland in 2019. He coached them to a 2–1 series victory in New Zealand in 2022 and two consecutive Six Nations Championships wins in 2023 and 2024, including aGrand Slam in 2023.
In January 2024, Farrell was appointed coach of theBritish & Irish Lions for theirtour of Australia in 2025. The Lions won the test series 2–1.
Farrell was born inWigan, Lancashire. His father played rugby league.[4] Farrell first playedrugby league at age 10 at a summer camp run byGraeme West, who wasWigan captain at the time.[5]
After developing with local club Orrell St James, he made his first-team début for his hometown club Wigan at the age of 16[6] in 32–8 victory overKeighley in the1991–92 Regal Trophy match atCentral Park,Wigan on Sunday 24 November 1991. Also that year his sonOwen Farrell was born, who also went on to become a professionalrugby union player.
Farrell became the youngest player to win aChallenge Cup final in1993 when at 17 years and 11 months he came on as a substitute againstWidnes.[7] He then became a full international by the age of 18, making his début forGreat Britain againstNew Zealand (the Kiwis) during their1993 tour.
After the1993–94 Rugby Football League season, during which he scored a try in Wigan's Challenge Cup Final victory, Farrell travelled with his club to Brisbane and played as asecond-row in their1994 World Club Challenge victory over Australian premiers, theBrisbane Broncos. He rates this as one of his greatest achievements in rugby league.[8] Farrell was selected to play for Great Britain againstAustralia in all threeAshestests of the1994 Kangaroo tour. The following year he played from the bench for Wigan in the1995 Challenge Cup Final victory overLeeds Rhinos. At the end of the season he played as aloose forward forEngland in the1995 World Cup Final, but Australia won the match and retained the cup.
In July 1996, Farrell was appointed Wigan Warriors' captain and later that year, aged 21 years and four months, became the youngest-ever captain of the Great Britain team, leading the1996 Lions tour of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. In October that year he won the prestigiousMan of Steel Award. He was also named atloose forward in 1996'sSuper League Dream Team. On 28 September 1997 in the1997 Super League Premiership Final, Farrell played atloose forward in Wigan's 33–20 win overSt. Helens atOld Trafford before a crowd of 33,389. He was awarded theHarry Sunderland Trophy as man of the match.[9] In the 1997 post-season, Farrell was selected to captain Great Britain atstand-off in all three matches of theSuper League Test series against Australia. He captained the Wigan Warriors as asecond-row in their1998 Super League Grand Final victory over Leeds Rhinos.
Farrell played for the Wigan Warriors atloose forward, scoring a try and kicking two goals, in their2000 Super League Grand Final defeat by St. Helens. In the post-season he was selected to captain England in the2000 Rugby League World Cup. In 2001 Farrell set the Wigan club record for most points in a season with 429 and most points in a Super League championship season with 388.[10] He is only the second Wigan Warriors player to score more than 3,000 points in all competitions. Farrell played for Wigan atloose forward in their2001 Super League Grand Final defeat by theBradford Bulls. He celebrated histestimonial match in 2002 and also captained Wigan to victory in the 2002 Challenge Cup.
Farrell played for Wigan atloose forward and kicked two goals in the2003 Super League Grand Final defeat by the Bradford Bulls. He was inducted into theOrder of the British Empire for services to the game in the New Year's list of 2004. He won the Players' Player Award and twice won the Man of Steel Award. Now Britain's oldest international, Farrell was selected in the Great Britain team to compete in the end-of-season2004 Rugby League Tri-Nations tournament. In the final against Australia he played atsecond-row, missing his onlygoal-kick in the Lions' 4–44 loss. Farrell was awarded theGolden Boot as the best player in the world in 2004.[11] He retired while second on the list of the England rugby league side's all-time top goal scorers (behindGeorge Fairbairn), with 78 points.
On 24 March 2005, Farrell announced his retirement from rugby league in order to play atSaracens and theRugby Football Union. A series of injuries and accidents (including a car crash) meant that his début in the 15-man code was delayed until 2006.[12][13] He finally made a try-scoring début for Saracens reserves on 11 September 2006.[14] Farrell then made his first-team début againstNewcastle Falcons on 17 September 2006 as a replacement. On both occasions, he played as blind-side flanker. A row then broke out about his best position: theEngland management suggested he should be playing in the centre, while Saracens continued to play him as a flanker.[15] However Farrell went on to play primarily at centre for the Saracens first team, and again when selected to play for a World XV againstSouth Africa. He was selected as a part of the England Elite squad for the2007 Six Nations by new coachBrian Ashton. He was seen by some to be the main contender for the starting inside centre position, after England's problems in that position during the 2006 autumn internationals.
Farrell made his England début atTwickenham after he was named at inside centre in the first Six Nations game against Scotland. The2007 World Cup saw Farrell starting at inside centre against South Africa, in England's chastening group stage defeat.[16] He was then brought on as a replacement againstTonga, and scored his first England try. However, after being picked for the quarter-final decider againstAustralia he had to withdraw with a calf injury. Unfortunately, he never produced the performances for the England union side for which many had hoped, and ultimately he won only eight caps. In January 2008 Farrell was joined at Saracens by his 16-year-old sonOwen Farrell, who signed a three-year academy deal with the club. In August 2008 Farrell was named co-captain for the 2008–09 season along withSteve Borthwick. There were rumours of Farrell returning to rugby league and rejoining Wigan Warriors after it emerged that Saracens head coachEddie Jones had become unhappy with the direction his club was taking. It was rumoured that Jones and Farrell could be moving up north, with the Warriors becoming increasingly impatient with out-of-favourBrian Noble, especially after their poor start to the season; however this proved to be unfounded, with the Warriors instead hiringMelbourne Storm assistant coachMichael Maguire. In April 2009 Farrell announced his retirement and said he was taking up a coaching role with Saracens at the end of the season.
Farrell was promoted to Saracens first-team coach at the end of 2010 after impressing as skills coach. The RFU announced[17] on 8 December 2011 that both he andGraham Rowntree were to join the national coaching team, led byStuart Lancaster, for the2012 Six Nations. After the successful campaign Farrell was given the chance to become a permanent part of the England coaching team; he initially decided to return to Saracens,[18] but soon left the London club and joined England on a three-and-a-half-year contract.[19][20]Farrell toured with theBritish and Irish Lions in2013 as defence coach.
Following the resignation of Stuart Lancaster on 11 November 2015, new head coach Eddie Jones sacked Farrell and the rest of the coaching team on 15 December 2015.[21]
On 6 January 2016, it was announced that Farrell would take up the role ofIreland defence coach after the completion of the2016 Six Nations Championship. As his previous contract with England prevented him from working with an international team until April 2016, Farrell joined Irish provinceMunster in January 2016 in a temporary advisor role that was to last for four months.[22]
On 26 November 2018, it was announced that Ireland head coachJoe Schmidt would step down after the2019 Rugby World Cup with Farrell taking over as head coach.[23]His first game in charge was againstScotland at theAviva Stadium on 1 February 2020 in the2020 Six Nations Championship Ireland won this game 19-12 and went on to finish in third place in the delayed Six Nations Championship.[24][25]Ireland finished in third place again in the2021 Six Nations Championship, losing games againstWales andFrance. On 13 November 2021, in theAutumn internationals, Ireland defeatedNew Zealand 29–20.[26]
Ireland won 29–7 againstWales in their opening fixture of the2022 Six Nations Championship on 5 February,[27] before losing 30–24 defeat away toFrance on 12 February.[28] They won the next game 57–6 againstItaly on 27 February,[29] before a 32–15 away win againstEngland on 12 March.[30] A 26–5 win at home againstScotland on 19 March was enough to secure theTriple Crown for Ireland and a second-place finish in the championship.[31] On 9 July 2022, Ireland had a historic win in New Zealand, beating the All Blacks 23–12 in Dunedin in the second match of the2022 New Zealand tour, their first ever victory against the All Blacks in New Zealand. A week later, they won again inWellington, beating the All Blacks 32–22 to win the series.[32] Following that victory Ireland became the world number one team for the second time.[33]
In the2023 Six Nations Championship, Ireland defeated Wales in their opening game on 4 February, and went on to defeat France, Italy, and Scotland before beating England 29-16 on 18 March to win the Championship,triple crown, and thegrand slam.[34][35][36][37][38]
In August 2023, Farrell announced his squad for the2023 Rugby World Cup in France. At the World Cup, Ireland wonpool B making it to thequarterfinals, but lost 24-28 toNew Zealand.[39][40] Due in part to Farrell managing Ireland to a Grand Slam and a strong performance in the World Cup, Farrell was awarded World Rugby Coach of the Year for 2023.[41]On 14 December 2023, Farrell signed a new four-year contract to remain as Ireland head coach until the end of the2027 Rugby World Cup.[42]
Ireland under Farrell won the2024 Six Nations Championship, beating all nations except England. Following the conclusion of the2024 Autumn Nations Series, a 22-19 win for Ireland overAustralia, he began his sabbatical from the Ireland team to begin his work with theBritish & Irish Lions.Simon Easterby assumed coach duties for Ireland in his absence.[43]
Farrell was an assistant coach to Warren Gatland on the2013 Lions tour to Australia, when the Lions won the series 2-1. He was also an assistant coach on theLions' 2017 tour to New Zealand, when the series was drawn 1-1. In January 2024, Farrell was announced as head coach for the2025 tour to Australia. After losing toArgentina in a pre-tour match in Dublin, the Lions won all their matches in Australia, except the third test. They won the test series 2–1.[44][45]
Farrell married Colleen O’Loughlin, the sister of his future Wigan teammateSean O’Loughlin, in 1995 and has four children, including England rugby union playerOwen Farrell.[46] Both Farrell and his wife are of Irish descent.[47]
| Team | Nation | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | F | A | PD | Win % | ||||
| Ireland |  | 25 October 2019 | Present | 65 | 51 | 0 | 14 | 2,044 | 1,071 | +973 | 78.46 |
| Total | 65 | 51 | 0 | 14 | 2,044 | 1,071 | +973 | 78.46 | |||
Great Britain / England
Wigan
Individual
England
British & Irish Lions
Ireland
Individual
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Ireland National Rugby Union Coach 2019–Present | Succeeded by Incumbent |
