Nothing defensive as Andy Farrell ready to take care of business for Ireland

It seems like a world removed from the scorching temperatures of the media centre at Bagshot, where England stayed briefly in last year's Rugby World Cup.

Andy Farrell and Stuart Lancaster were metaphorically torched by reporters, almost on a daily basis, as England stumbled and then tumbled out at the group stages, the media then exploding with rage at the end and seeking heads and retribution wherever they could find them.

In an illustration of coaches and players taking no notice of what is in the papers, both Farrell and Lancaster now find themselves in Ireland, no longer the fall guys for England's failure but respected members of Ireland's and Leinster's coaching staff.

It now falls to Farrell to plot against his son Owen when Ireland face England in the final match of this season's Six Nations Championship. A whole lot comes before that, including Ireland's match against the All Blacks in Chicago. But Farrell sees it all with typical north-of-England frankness. With regard to his son, the England outhalf and centre, business will be business.

Dynamic

It is at least an interesting dynamic, though, coaching against a son? Isn’t it?

“It is to you,” says Farrell.

But not to you?

“Well, it isn’t,” he says. “I was a professional rugby player and then he was me son. I was watching him play amateur rugby, and then he’s your son. But when it becomes professional and he signs professional forms, and I’m coaching him, it’s never been any different. It’s never been any different because it’s work. It’s work.

“Of course, you still have the father-son relationship out of work.

“I would say I never really coached him as a junior at all. I know a lot of fathers do that, but I never did at all. I would think that job is harder as far as relationships are concerned, because it’s not professional.”

Farrell snr will at least be spared the questions that engulfed him at the World Cup about using influence to play his son at outhalf rather than Mike Ford’s son George. At the end of it all, an exasperated Farrell was pressed into having to say straight out that he did not influence that call.

Ireland would appear to be a more serenely peaceful place. But Farrell is not a yes man.

He is outspoken and confident, an aspect of his character that reflects well on Joe Schmidt, who has shown his own confidence by embracing such a strong personality. [CROSSHEAD]Know-how[/CROSSHEAD] The respect runs both ways. Farrell is learning from Schmidt.

“It’s the know-how of the whole game, you know,” he says. “To be a great coach, you can’t just work in silos, because the [elements of the] game interfold into one another.

“You start off in one area, and you try and grow through. I first started as a skills coach, then as a backs coach, then attack coach and then defence.

“Joe’s been through all of that, throughout his career, and learned how to galvanise it all in his career and be unbelievably successful as a head coach. So it’s been very interesting to see how he does that.”

Schmidt’s famous attention to detail was no surprise to Farrell. Having worked with some of the Irish players with the Lions, Farrell was aware of the type of coach Schmidt had become. His move into the Irish defensive coaching position was far from a culture shock.

“No, because I’d worked with the players he’d coached before,” he says. “I knew the detail that they like to have and demand and that’s coming from somewhere. It’s not just from one coach, it’s a career of coaches.

“Look, you don’t win a couple of European trophies and Six Nations trophies by not having detail.”

The November series is now only weeks away and at present Farrell is visiting the provinces. This week he was in Munster and on Wednesday spoke with Jacques Nienaber. He has also been watching the All Blacks and Australia, saw how Argentina ran New Zealand hard for 50 minutes. Maybe there was something in the way Argentina played that Ireland could take to the USA.

But Farrell has been around too long, coached the best players in the world too frequently and beat the best opposition in the world as a league and union player too often to believe it could be as simple as borrowing from the Pumas. Coaching is more complicated.

“When you’re talking about a team like New Zealand, they are going to analyse what happened in the first 50 minutes and understand what Argentina did to them and why,” he says.

“They’ll correct certain things along the way. You’ve got to have your own plan and understand what your team is about, first and foremost. That’s what we’ll be working on when we select the squad.”