Andy Farrell: IRFU would be 'ecstatic' if head coach took charge of British and Irish Lions
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Farrell and his squad are preparing to face South Africa in Dublin next weekend
The IRFU would be "ecstatic" if Andy Farrell became the British and Irish Lions head coach for the 2025 tour of Australia, performance director David Nucifora has said.
Farrell agreed a new contract earlier this year to remain in charge of Ireland until the summer of that year.
The former England assistant has been defence coach on previous Lions tours.
"We've done it [his contract] in such a way to have another couple of years of continuity," Nucifora said.
"It does tie in with a Lions year, and we'd be ecstatic if Andy was the Lions coach, we think that would be fantastic.
"If he gets offered that job and chooses to take it, we'd be fully supportive of him because for us that's part of the growth of the game here.
"So, there are things that would be assessed along the way. We feel that we've got a world-class head coach, a really good coaching ticket that supports him and we'll be working to try and secure them for as long as we can."
Farrell is currently preparing his Ireland squad for their opening Nations Series Test against South Africa at the Aviva Stadium on 5 November.
After hosting the world champions, the Irish will welcome Fija and then Australia to the Dublin venue over the following two weeks.
Nucifora also revealed that discussions are taking place with Farrell's backroom team - including defence coach Simon Easterby, forwards coach Paul O'Connell and attack coach Mike Catt - about extending their contracts.
He is confident of retaining their services, but also said he has no fears about Ireland's potential to attract top coaching talent.
"It's important, but again, everyone has different decisions to make based on different things in life. Their job is only one of them," he explained.
"Look, I would be confident that we will retain that group, but I couldn't guarantee you that at the moment. And if that didn't happen, would I be worried about that? I would be disappointed, but I wouldn't be worried.
"One of the benefits of having a really robust system is that everyone's really curious about what we're doing and how we're doing it.
"Because they're curious, when we put an ad in the paper for whatever - a nutritionist, a physio, a coach - the change in the last five years about the global interest in wanting to work in this system is enormous. So people want to be a part of this at the moment because they think we're doing it OK."
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