Paul O'Connell is happy to be back "in the trenches" as an assistant coach with Ireland, after his summer work experience in the top job.
O’Connell stepped up as head coach for the summer tour of Georgia and Portugal while the rest of the Irish coaching ticket was away with the British and Irish Lions, and led a largely inexperienced squad to a pair of victories.
The full Irish squad and coaching ticket are back together again after a disjointed 2025, where Simon Easterby filled in as head coach for the Six Nations, before O’Connell took charge of the summer.
And while the former Ireland captain enjoyed the extra responsibility, he’s content to keep building his CV under Farrell.
"I'm very happy in the trenches," the Ireland forwards coach said, speaking from the team's Chicago base ahead of Saturday’s meeting with New Zealand at Soldier Field.
"I just feel like I'm learning all the time and still have so much to learn.
"I think as an assistant coach, there's so many experiences you can have that can help you if you ever want to be a head coach. I still feel I'm very much on that journey.
"It's a great experience for me to be able to go and do it for a little while and then duck back into what I'm more used to as well."
While O’Connell (above) is taking a step back, the 46-year-old says he’s gained a new appreciation for how the role of both a head coach and assistant coach works, particularly when it comes to in-game management.
"That was probably the biggest learning for me and the biggest understanding I bring into my role as an assistant coach now," he said.
"I suppose you're thinking about substitutions, and you're probably the one giving down the main messages. Whereas when you're an assistant coach, you're not giving down the main messages.
"[The messages] are probably more specific to your area and you're probably trying to reduce as many as possible because you know the defence coach has to give something down, and there's other bits and pieces.
"It's a bit different in that regard. I enjoyed that part of it actually during the game.
"You have assistant coaches feeding into you what they see, and you're trying to pick and choose what you want the players to hear because they can't take on a massive amount of information during the game either.
"When you pick something, you need to try and make it count. I enjoyed that part of it."
Thirteen uncapped players were part of the Ireland squad that toured in the summer, but only three of those have been retained in the full squad for this international window.
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Leinster wing Tommy O’Brien and Munster forward Tom Ahern are the two summer debutants who are part of this Irish squad, while uncapped Leinster prop Paddy McCarthy is the other summer rookie involved.
And while O’Connell admits this settled Irish group has become hard to break into, he still believes there was good value in the summer tour.
"We have a lot of players in the system that just need a chance," said the two-time Heineken Cup winner.
"They can't always get the chance with the full Irish team so trying to have these Emerging tours, trying to have as many international games as we can, 'A’ games is really important for us.
"Because when they do get a chance or they do get into camp with us to train - we try to always bring some extras in to train with us, to watch, to train, to see how we do things, so that they get to see how a seasoned international player prepares.
"It always brings them on and it probably brings us on in terms of our confidence in that player as well.
"The more we get to coach them and experience them and they get to experience us, the better it is for our depth."
The Ireland team to face New Zealand will be revealed at 1pm Irish time on Thursday, with captain Caelan Doris on track to return at number 8 following an injury layoff.
One position that is open for audition is blindside flanker, following Peter O’Mahony’s summer retirement.
Joe McCarthy’s injury means Tadhg Beirne looks likely to feature for Ireland in the second row in the coming month, which opens the door for Ryan Baird (below), Cian Prendergast and Nick Timoney to fight for more gametime.
"I think you look at Ryan Baird or you look at Cian Prendergast captaining at Connacht, they're accumulating a lot of experience now," O'Connell added.
"I know that Cian is really enjoying his time with Stuart Lancaster.
"Cian Prendergast is patiently waiting, maybe not so patient at times. He's really eager to play.
"Ryan Baird has had his ups and downs trying to get picked at Leinster. He really finished well last season and was excellent for us in the summer.
"For sure, we've lost a bit of experience, but there's a group of guys coming through who have a different type of experience.
"I was doing a bit of work with Nick Timoney down below there. He's an excellent player.
"So we haven't had a lot of injuries in that back row and Pete has played a big leadership role for us.
"He's moved on now and that leaves a void which other guys have to go and take and they have to go and take it and pick themselves."
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