David Humphreys: Andy Farrell's Lions switch presents 'exciting opportunity'

David Humphreys believes Andy Farrell's sabbatical to coach the British and Irish Lions next year will bring more positives than negatives for his Ireland team.

Ireland head coach Farrell, who is under contract with the IRFU until after the 2027 Rugby World Cup, will step aside briefly following the November internationals to focus on the Lions tour of Australia, before returning to his post in August 2025.

Defence coach Simon Easterby is expected to be promoted to head coach on an interim basis. Easterby has dipped his toes in the water of the role previously when he was given responsibility for the Emerging Ireland tour of South Africa in 2022, which he will also do in September when they return for a three-game series in Bloemfontein.

New IRFU performance director Humphreys says no decision has been made on who will take charge of Ireland next season.

"It's a very exciting opportunity for someone to step in," Humphreys (below) said.

The former Ireland and Ulster out-half, who recently took over from David Nucifora as the head of high performance in the union, added that Farrell will be involved in deciding who will be given the keys to the team next season.

"You talk about coaching succession, this will give us a chance to bring someone else in at a very important time for the national team and test them in probably the highest pressure environment in the Six Nations.

"Andy's away for six months but he'll still be very much involved in that process of who's going to come in.

"After South Africa, we're planning to sit down and look at how we're going to run the next season."

If, as expected, Easterby does move up the ladder, it will leave the Ireland coaching ticket one body short for next year's Six Nations and their summer