Ireland legend surprised at Andy Farrell following Six Nations announcement
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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.”