'Coaching against the Lions was probably beyond my wildest dreams'

The 42

17-07-2025

TAKING A QUICK break from putting the finishing touches to the Wallabies' restart plans, Eoin Toolan is sitting in a bustling café in Brisbane reflecting on how a 12-year adventure in Australia has brought him to the eve of coaching against the Lions.
This three-game series is one of the reasons that Greystones man Toolan got back into professional rugby last year following a three-year hiatus.
Another reason was Joe Schmidt. He and Toolan always stayed in touch after working together with Ireland in 2013. Schmidt can be a persuasive fella, but Toolan didn't need much cajoling. A Lions series and a home World Cup are hard to resist.
Schmidt initially brought Toolan in as the Wallabies' head of analysis and skills coach, but the Irishman's role has transitioned into solely a coaching role.
Australia hired two full-time analysts so Toolan can concentrate on coaching the Wallabies' core skills, kick chase, aerial contests, restarts, opposition plays in training, and more.
So here he is, 12 years after accepting an offer from Tony McGahan to come to the Melbourne Rebels, about to lock horns with the Lions.
'It's a pinch-yourself moment,' says Toolan. 'To be involved in a set-up coaching against the Lions was probably beyond my wildest dreams.
'I'm extremely humbled and honoured to be involved in the Australian set-up. I've been here 12 years now, which is an incredible amount of time. I'm an Aussie citizen now.
'It's remarkable where the rugby world can take you.'
His first year back in rugby with the Wallabies has exceeded Toolan's hopes in terms of how enjoyable it has been.
Toolan was happy out of the game, working regular hours with analysis software company Hudl and enjoying weekends with his wife, Sinéad, and daughters, Ayda and Amber. He didn't go looking for a way back in; he just answered his phone to Schmidt
Toolan explains that he got into the rhythm of many things quickly, while others took a bit of time. The game had changed since he left it following a spell with Japanese club Kintetsu Liners. He cites the aerial contest and banning of kick escorts as one example.
Toolan had continued to watch rugby avidly, as well as analysing the game on The 42's rugby podcasts, but being right in the thick of it is very different.
Toolan played in the AIL with Greystones. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
Analysis was Toolan's route into pro rugby. He was a smart player in the AIL with Greystones before suddenly finding himself a full-time analyst when Kurt McQuilkin and then Mervyn Murphy needed support in breaking down the game.
Toolan was part of Ireland's 2009 Grand Slam-winning set-up and then got the chance to work with Schmidt before leaving for Australia in late 2013.
Coaching was part of the picture from early too. Toolan went back to St Gerard's School in Bray to coach straight after leaving, as well as doing some in Greystones. Though he initially focused on analysis in Melbourne, he gradually took on more coaching responsibilities and became head coach of the Melbourne Rising team in the National Rugby Championship.
Toolan also coached with Kintetsu in Japan, so his current role as an assistant coach for the Wallabies is just the latest step in the progression.
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He's enjoying being part of a staff that has plenty of nous. Toolan was already good friends with forwards coach Geoff Parling from their time together in Melbourne, but Laurie Fisher was a first-time colleague.
'He's a technically brilliant coach, his eye for detail in and around the collision is supremely good,' says Toolan. 'He's got such a wealth of experience in the game across different environments, whether Brumbies, Munster, or Gloucester.
'So he probably formulated his coaching philosophy based on the best bits out of those different environments.'
Then there's scrum guru Mike Cron, or 'Grandad' as they call him in Wallabies camp. Cron was with the All Blacks when they dominated the Lions in 2005, as well as for their 2011 and 2015 World Cup successes.
'He has a wonderful manner about him and how he connects with players,' says Toolan. 'He's a very softly-spoken coach, incredibly detailed, but with an incredible appetite to continue to learn at his ripe old age.
'He's been a great resource for me in terms of how you present the message you're trying to deliver in meetings, even the tonality of your voice when you're coaching.
'There are so many things that probably young coaches don't think of. He's been a really great sounding board for me.'
Schmidt is one of the best examples of an analyst-coach, renowned for his attention to detail and ability to pick out strengths and weaknesses in players and teams.
The former Ireland boss isn't one for mind games and outside narratives; he only cares about his team's performance. And Toolan is very much of that ilk.
'I think the Australian public have gotten around a team that is focused on working hard, performance-focused, not driven by getting sucked in by the external noise,' says Toolan.
Fisher, Toolan, Schmidt, and Cron. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
'The hype of a 3-0 Lions series win, journalists talking about potentially not coming back here in 12 years' time, all that exterior noise doesn't really bother us.
'We're focused on working hard and we hope the Australian public get behind that.
'The game for me at the moment is around effort. For me, what defines exciting attack and oppressive defence is how hard you're willing to work for each other.
'Effort is a huge component of that. And I don't think the boys will be wanting in that area on Saturday.'
Toolan works with the Wallabies around their kicking game, something Schmidt also takes a keen interest in. This is certainly one area where Australian teams have been deficient in the past, but this crop is hungry to kick well, contest in the air, and get the ball back in unstructured situations for their attack to spark up.
And that's the thing about Schmidt's Wallabies. He has made them a much more solid team than was the case before. They're harder to beat. But they can still break out in classic Wallabies fashion to score stunning tries like last autumn's last-gasp winner against England at Twickenham.
'A key part of coaching is understanding the strengths you have in the team, trying to accentuate those strengths and play with them,' says Toolan.
'We've got some incredibly gifted athletes with speed, footwork, offload ability.
'Now, all those things don't happen without nailing the fundamentals of your role, as we said, but it would be foolish not to try and access those skill sets in games when they're available to you.
'The Australian public get behind that exciting brand of rugby and I think we started to see it more consistently in the spring tour.
'The heartbeat of the game hasn't changed around set-piece and breakdown. Whoever controls breakdown speed controls the game. But if you can be accurate in that area, it does allow players to potentially express themselves.'
Toolan likes the fact that even though the Wallabies have to spend the bulk of their time on collective work, Schmidt makes sure there is time for individual skill development.
No matter how good a game plan is, it will fail if players can't nail their core skills. So young Wallabies players like 20-year-old wing Max Jorgensen, 21-year-old centre Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii, and 22-year-old out-half Tom Lynagh are still being pushed on the basics.
Toolan and Schmidt at Wallabies training. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
'The oxygen in Test rugby just gets squeezed,' says Toolan. 'The space becomes less and less and less.
'So your ability to execute those fundamentals is so essential.'
And yet, the Wallabies' time with their players has been very limited so far this year. They had a short camp in January and then left the Super Rugby clubs to get on with their seasons without disrupting players.
There were two-day camps in each of the clubs after their Super Rugby campaigns ended, before the Wallabies came together for their win over Fiji two weekends ago, took a break, then gathered last Friday to begin prep for the Lions.
Over the past six months, Schmidt, Toolan, and co. analysed every minute detail of both Super Rugby and the Six Nations, picking out trends, predicting Andy Farrell's possible approach, and watching probable Lions players in depth.
The job in the past week has been giving the Wallabies players enough info to get them ready for battle, but not overload them with too much.
They made obvious progress under Schmidt last year across a gruelling campaign that involved some of the Australian players seeing snow for the first time in their lives in Edinburgh, beating England at Twickenham, running Ireland close in Dublin, but also having a few tough days.
Now, they look to take down the Lions.
'The only way we get better is by experiencing these big moments,' says Toolan.
'Joe has mapped it out really well and I think we're in a pretty good position going into Test one, but we'll know a little bit more after Saturday.'
As he heads back to the Wallabies' team hotel to dig back into restart strategy, it's clear that Toolan has no regrets whatsoever about taking the plunge back into the game.