Andy Farrell had an illustrious career as a player, mostly playing rugby league but also had a decent stint in union. His the father of the controversial Owen Farrell but that is not what we are here to talk about.
In his league career, he played for Wigan from 1991-2004 making 370 appearances and scoring an insane 3,135 points! He was also capped for Great Britain and England for a combined total of 45 times.
His union carer was spent at Saracens from 2005-2009 where he made 28 appearances and was capped 8 times for England in 2007 where he also earned a World Cup runners-up medal
During his coaching career, he has been involved only with top teams. He spent 2 years with Saracens from 2010 to 2012. In 2011 he became an assistant coach for England up until 2015 and was the defence coach for the British & Irish Lions in 2013.
His coaching career in Ireland started as assistant to the iconic Joe Schmidt in 2016 and he then took over as head coach in 2020.
Joe Schmidt left him a really strong team with amazing structures in place. He took a little while to settle in but has only grown from strength to strength.
He has also had the best winning record of any Ireland coach since rugby turned professional in 1995. There was a short stint of 2 games for interim coach Les Kiss in 2013 where he had a 100% record but that doesn’t really count.
The great Joe Schmidt had a 72% winning record while Andy Farrell’s record is nearly 82%! His Ireland team has had 31/38 wins and this included the Triple Crown in 2022 and 2023 and both a 6 Nations win and Grand Slam in 2023.