Ireland legend surprised at Andy Farrell following Six Nations announcement

As you were.

Ireland legend Keith Wood is surprised at Andy Farrell following his Guinness Six Nations squad announcement earlier this week.

Farrell named a 34-man squad on Wednesday afternoon with no uncapped players and 34-year-old Peter O’Mahony named as captain and successor to the recently retired Johnny Sexton.

Farrell has selected three further training additions – Munster duo Oli Jager and Thomas Ahern and Leinster out-half Sam Prendergast – who will travel with the Ireland squad to Portugal next Wednesday for their pre-tournament training camp in Quinta do Lago, but other than that he has stuck with an experienced squad.

Wood thought Farrell might have gone with a “clean sweep” and named a younger captain.

“I wasn’t certain that it was going to happen; I’m not going to pretend that it was,” Wood told Off The Ball in relation to O’Mahony being named the new captain.

“I thought there might have been a clean sweep and a ‘let’s move with the next generation’ to see what would happen, and you would still have Peter there to give the leadership he gives automatically.

“Maybe this is a way of easing the pressure on younger guys and easing the route for the next captain.

“It’s an unbelievable honour to be told you’re captain for the day, but it’s a huge honour to be told you’re going to be the captain for the prestige tournament that the Six Nations is.”

Facebook
Twitter
Follow Me
Instagram