Will Slattery

It never says we never talked to Andy's representatives.

You don't have to offer a contract to discuss a contract.

The wording of the statement, I think, leaves grey areas.

Rudd wasn't claiming it was a done deal and he was out the door either.

I think people were sending that statement around as some sort of like, oh, that means, oh, if Saracen said it, there can't be any smoke there.

But it does show that there's kind of like moving kind of musical chairs already.

When it was announced in 2018 that Joe was leaving and Farrell was taking over, it was like November 2018, which would be November of this year.

So that's not that far off in terms of having to kind of start getting ducks in a row.

We discussed yesterday, the left wing, myself and Rudd, would it just be a natural time, win or lose, no matter how well Ireland do at a World Cup, that two cycles feels about right for any coach, no matter how good you are?

you run the risk going into years 9, 10, 11, 12, notwithstanding the four years he put in as an assistant prior to that, that it might just be a natural time for a break.

Like, that sounds like a very attractive offer to go with the Saracens.

He is from England.

He spent a lot of time there.

Owen is there, kind of bringing his son along as a coach.

That seems to be a very attractive next act for Andy Farrell.

Just putting myself in his own headspace.

you know he has to work every day of the week he doesn't hear that's true um i know there's lots of pressures to come with international don't come with club level but there is a grind that comes with club that you don't have an international as well so could be locked away up but it's interesting like if this story come out last week i think people would be a lot more willing to say i don't think that guy is maybe sending that email if this story is last week either yeah so it's interesting there's a lot of moving parts to it at the moment

It is rare to see

kind of successful international coaches go back to the club game say Jake White did it he kind of left South African kind of acrimony but say like the big New Zealand coaches like Graham Henry Steve Hansen they kind of almost went off Ian Foster they've all really gone to Japan in some degrees but not back into like the daily grind of like super rugby or like you know you say even Gatlin kind of briefly went to the Chiefs

then went to Lyons, then kind of left the Chiefs, then went back to Wales.