Alan Quinlan gives forthright verdict on how Andy Farrell’s Ireland return will impact All Blacks clash

Alan Quinlan does not believe that Andy Farrell’s absence as Ireland coach for most of their 2025 Test campaign will hinder the side when they face New Zealand on Saturday.

Due to Farrell’s commitments as British & Irish Lions head coach for their tour of Australia earlier this year, he stepped aside from his position as Ireland boss.

That meant Simon Easterby moved up from his role as Ireland‘s defence coach role to take over the coaching reins for the 2025 Six Nations while Paul O’Connell was the side’s head coach for their mid-year internationals against Georgia and Portugal as Easterby was also part of Farrell’s backroom staff with the Lions.

After guiding the famous touring side to a 2-1 series triumph over the Wallabies in Australia, Farrell is back in charge of Ireland for their Autumn Nations Series campaign, which kicks off against the All Blacks at Soldier Field in Chicago.

That venue has happy memories for the men from the Emerald Isle as they clinched their first ever victory over the All Blacks there in 2016. Since then, Ireland have won four more matches against the men in black, including an historic 2-1 series victory in New Zealand in 2022.

However, the All Blacks will be in a confident mood as they prepare for this weekend’s encounter as they have won their last two Tests against Ireland – at the Aviva Stadium last year and their 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final in France.

Earlier this week, ex-Ireland back-row Quinlan appeared on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin and was asked whether Farrell will be able to make a smooth transition from his recent role with the Lions to his one with Ireland and said he expects that to happen.

“It’s achievable and something that I would expect him to have thought about before he took the Lions job and what that will look like because he’s contracted for another couple of years here and they’re in the middle of a World Cup cycle,” he commented.

‘A great honour for him’

“It’s a great honour for him and I think he’s been involved in a couple of Lions tours before that but not as head coach.”

Quinlan revealed that despite his commitments with the Lions earlier this year, Farrell still kept tabs on Ireland’s progress.

“I know he was dialled in to Ireland and what was going on,” he added. “They had a summer tour to Georgia and Portugal, Paul O’Connell was the head coach.

“I’m sure they were in conversations and they were planning and putting a strategy together for some young players who played in those Test matches, albeit Ireland won them comfortably.

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“I think all the players know him inside out and it’s just draw a line in the sand after the Lions and switch on and since he’s come back from Australia, I’m sure he had a couple of weeks off but I’m sure he was dialled straight in of the plan, the structure and the challenging part, not just for him but for the rest of the coaches, is getting this team up to speed and there’s no quick fix or easy way of doing that.”

Ireland had 16 representatives in the Lions touring squad and Quinlan believes it’s a similar scenario for those players, who only returned to action recently for their clubs in the United Rugby Championship after being rested after the tour to Australia.

He singled out Ireland and Lions utility forward Tadhg Beirne as an example of a player who hit the ground running with a brilliant performance upon his return to action for Munster in their 31-14 victory over Leinster at Croke Park.

‘I think he’s been an outstanding player internationally’

“I think you hope that one thing that he could probably look at is Tadhg Beirne who I think he’s been an outstanding player internationally for a number of years and you think back to his performances against the All Blacks in ’22,” said Quinlan.

“He was phenomenal in those Test matches, particularly in the third Test when you guys (New Zealand) were fighting back and causing Ireland a lot of problems.

“He came up with incredible turnovers and I think he’s one of the best in the world at that. He was outstanding last week against Leinster (for Munster) so that was his first game back. He put in an outstanding performance.

“There’s probably 10 or 12 Leinster guys who would probably be starting for Ireland. The narrative was that they don’t have that match practice so he bucked the trend if you like. I think Andy Farrell will be hoping that he might even show them Tadhg Beirne’s performance and say: ‘Don’t buy into this, we’re not match fit’.

“He’ll be very hopeful that he can get up to speed, his coaches can and his team but it’s a challenging one.

“It’s very simple, if Ireland win this game, there’s every chance you can get a good performance and still not win a Test match, particularly against a side as good as New Zealand.

“So even if Ireland play brilliantly that doesn’t guarantee him anything but I think he’ll be really hopeful and the rugby public here will be hopeful that Ireland can be in this contest and cause problems and get up to speed.”

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