WHEN you consider all aspects it made perfect sense for Andy Farrell to be at the Aviva Stadium for Ireland vs England.
Those two nations will provide the bulk of his Lions squad for the summer tour of Australia.
Plus it’s not like the other two relevant countries were in direct opposition as Scotland beat Italy whilst Wales were thrashed 43-0 in Paris.
Nonetheless it did provide the home crowd with a chance to make one of their biggest cheers of the night when he was shown on the big screen at a break in play during Ireland’s 27-22 success.
In the build-up to this year’s Six Nations kicking off it’s been reported that Farrell is still attending every team meeting virtually.
So there’s very much still a feeling that the Wigan native is pulling strings in the background despite technically stepping away from his post for the tournament.
Speaking pre-match on ITV, Brian O’Driscoll scoffed at the notion that Farrell was ever going to completely remove himself from the Irish camp.
He insisted: “There’s no way he hasn’t some involvement!
“Be it conversations in the lead-up to it, they were away in Portugal last week.
“Listen, Andy is the Lions coach but what’s he doing at the moment other than looking at players?
“He’s going to inherit this team again in six months’ time. He definitely has some form of involvement.
“That’s okay – I’m sure Warren Gatland did it, other coaches in the past will have done it.
“It’s completely natural. They’re just never going to admit to it!”
Post-match O’Driscoll was asked to speculate on how the debrief between interim coach Easterby and Farrell would’ve unfolded.
With a smile, the 133-times capped icon said: “‘My team I selected certainly worked well for you!’”
His punditry colleagues of Rory Best, Eddie and Jonny Wilkinson all chuckled at the gag that touched on the likely reality at play.
Next up for Ireland will Scotland in Edinburgh on Sunday afternoon with Gregor Townsend’s men coming off a 31-19 win over Italy at Murrayfield.
Looking ahead to that task, Easterby told RTE: “I think what it does do is it sets us up for what will be a hell of a challenge in Murrayfield.
“It’s never easy going up there, they’re coming off the back of a win as well.
“But we need to make sure we get better at the things we know we can and it will be important that we don’t deviate too far away from what’s worked for us this week.
“But it’s an important place to go and get a result, it’s somewhere where we’ve had a little bit of success in the last few years but we know it’s going to be incredibly tough.”
