{"id":9722,"date":"2026-03-04T18:54:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=9722"},"modified":"2026-03-04T18:54:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:54:51","slug":"andy-farrell-ireland-head-coach-expects-discussions-over-future-amid-saracens-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=9722","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell: Ireland head coach expects &#8216;discussions&#8217; over future amid Saracens links"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says he expects to &#8220;sit down and have discussions&#8221; with the Irish Rugby Football Union over his future after being linked with a move to Saracens. <\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Saracens last week released a statement to distance the club from &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; reports they had offered Farrell a coaching role after the 2027 Rugby World Cup when his Ireland deal ends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The English Premiership side said &#8220;no offer has been made&#8221; after the Irish Independent reported that Farrell was approached with a deal worth more than \u00a31m a year to return to Sarries following next year&#8217;s tournament in Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mark McCall will step down as Saracens&#8217; director of rugby at the end of the season and Brendan Venter will return to the role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While Farrell admitted he understood why he would be linked with a role at his former club, where his son Owen currently plays, he said it was &#8220;people putting two and two together and making five&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You&#8217;d expect me to say I&#8217;m here to concentrate on the Six Nations and what will be, will be in the future,&#8221; Farrell said ahead of Ireland&#8217;s Six Nations game with Wales on Friday (20:10 GMT). <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I suppose it&#8217;s people putting two and two together and making five, with the connections, good friends with the owner, Owen&#8217;s there and all of that&#8230; So you can see why that has happened. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I suppose we&#8217;ll sit down and have discussions with the IRFU in the near future, that&#8217;s for sure.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Farrell, who played for Saracens as a player after switching from Rugby League, joined Ireland&#8217;s coaching team under Joe Schmidt and became head coach after the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 50-year-old guided Ireland to two Six Nations titles, including a Grand Slam in 2023, and took charge of the British and Irish Lions&#8217; series win over Australia in the summer. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says he expects to &#8220;sit down and have discussions&#8221; with the Irish Rugby Football Union over his future after being linked with a move to Saracens. Saracens last week released a statement to distance the club from &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; reports they had offered Farrell a coaching role after the 2027 Rugby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}