FORMER MUNSTER FLY HALF Jonny Holland has taken the latest step in his coaching journey, having been announced by Christian Brothers College as the school’s Rugby Elite Performance Director.
Th announcement comes through a statement from the school, that notes Holland will have, ‘overall responsibility for the College’s Rugby development and coaching programme, aligning with the school’s overall mission and values.’
The statement continued, ‘A former Munster fly-half, Jonny moved into coaching and management in recent years with Cork Constitution RFC, and most recently led the club as Head Coach to AIL Division 1A title success. He brings considerable experience to his role through involvement in elite sport as a performance nutritionist.
‘Principal of CBC Cork, David Lordon, said, “We are delighted to have Jonny joining our management team and leading CBC Rugby in the achievement of its development goals. Jonny’s vision aligns strongly with our commitment to excellence on and off the pitch, and we are excited about the experience and energy he will bring to the role.
‘A key area of responsibility for Jonny will be the nurturing of talent within the coaching group, designing and implementing programs that allow our players to reach their full potential as well as ensuring that our programme engages all pupils in the Christians Rugby experience.’”
Holland has taken up the role with immediate effect.
Compared to Jones,Lancaster is a breath of fresh air.
But as a supporter would you rather your opponents liked you and you lost or disliked you and you win.
Even as an Ireland supporter I feel somewhat more comfortable with an English setup I can despise again. Now all he has to do is get Ashton back into the team…
@john free: England actually had a very good win rate under Lancaster. Obviously not as good as under Jones, but it’s not the difference between win or lose. More the difference between win mist of the time and win all of the time.
I say sign the two lads up again. Seems to be working and most leister fans are happy at the halfway stages
He was unlucky to get sacked jones is living off the team he built
What about the Leinster fans though??
No matter what, I would love to have him still coaching in Ireland next season. Be that with Connacht or Leinster, he’s top quality and chances like this don’t come around to often.
Leinster need to bite the bullet & appoint Lancaster.
How about Lancaster stays on at Leinster as head coach and Cullen goes to Connaught to further his carrier think it would be a win win for all…
@Glenn Finlay: not hard to guess your a Leinster fan rather than Connacht.
Reports suggest that Doak is heading to Connacht.
Groan.
Whilst SL is obviously a decent bloke with a proven track record of developing talent, he was totally out of his depth coaching England. His selection policy was totally inconsistent and his grasp of tactics muddled. Anyone who consistently picked Brad Barritt at 12 or 13 and also left Itoje out of the RWC because he “wasn’t ready” – despite the rest of the world realising he was – clearly didn’t have a clue.
It’s instructive that, when mooted as becoming Harlequins director of rugby, the England players at ‘Quins vetoed the move.
To say EJ is “living off the team he built” is wrong. It’s more like Jones had exactly the same players to pick from that SL did but somehow managed to win the Grand Slam, beat the Aussies 4-0 and rack up an unbeaten year.
Lancaster may develop over time, with junior roles but any club installing him as the main man would be taking a big risk as he has no track record of successfully running a top side.
People seem to forget his English failure was down to his captain going for 5 points and a win rather than take a simply 3 and a draw in the World Cup pool of death. A draw in that game and england progress in their home tournament and who knows what might have happened.
Since he’s gone england has returned to a horrible team coached and captained by thugs
Exactly Chris. Lancaster had started off with kids and created a very good young team and developed some very good players. They’d also beaten the All Black’s a couple of times during his time but he will somehow be seen as a failure because his captain made the wrong decision.
@Chris Mcdonnell:
That failure againt Wales was down to poor coaching and preparation. If you have a bright captain (like Sam Warburton) then you let him decide to take the 3 or not because he understands the bigger picture and can think clearly under stress. If you have a dumb captain then you go over all the possible scenarios before the game so that he knows which option to take. Although Robshaw had already taken two highly publicised wrong options previously this failsafe obviously hadn’t been done.
This lack of coaching/preparation was evident when Billy Vunipola had scored the bonus point try in the group game against Fiji and when interviewed afterwards he didn’t realise that there was a bonus point for four tries!
Lancaster’s failure wasn’t simply not getting out of the RWC group. It was not moving the England team along one iota from where he’d started. After 4yrs he still had no idea of his ideal XV or how they were going to play.
” england has returned to a horrible team coached and captained by thugs”
That’s a bit harsh! No-one was complaing Japan were coached by thugs when they beat the Boks wre they? As an England fan I’m glad people don’t like us. They’re not supposed to.
@Paul K Murphy:
Indeed. Well said.
He does seem like a really genuine, nice bloke.
Hopefully he’ll do some good things in the future.
I think Lancaster is enjoying being away from the spotlight of the English media. His head coach role with Leinster also allows him a more hands on role that an English club director of rugby role may not.
Hopefully the enjoyment of his job will see Lancaster bring his family over and re-sign with Leinster.The IRFU cannot and wont compete financially with an English club if one comes in.
Leinster Impact , the pro 12 franchise.
I think Lancaster’s role is different to McQuilkin’s. McQuilkin was focused on defence predominantly and had more time to invest in tackle technique etc.
Lancaster seems to be doing a bit of everything-technical coaching, attack coaching, defence coaching etc-and haso less time to focus on defence as a result.
Replying to @Sup there.
His record and development of young players at Leeds Tykes (Yorkshire Carnegie) and England RFU Development role, would be good for either Connacht or Leinster. Remember every coaching job ends in failure at some point.
Dipping his toe before the money is back on the table.
Statistically The Leinster defense has gotten worse since he came in.
Attacking wise there seems to be more structure but is that his influence or girve?
His attack responsibilities are usually set piece plays, those have been very good. Bit much to expect him to do better than McQuilken in defence, but it’s not been too bad either, their defence still holds up well. I’m sure his influence in the academy and passing experience on to Cullen has helped things too.