JOHNNY SEXTON MIGHT be on his way home but we are still guaranteed an Irish presence in next season’s Top 14. Former Munster back row James Coughlan has had a very strong season for Pau in the ProD2 and they confirmed their promotion to the top tier of French rugby with a 31-5 win over Montauban yesterday.
Coughlan will be joined by Munster flanker Sean Dougall at the club next season, and All Black Conrad Smith is also set to join after the World Cup. Pau are sponsored by Total, the world’s fifth biggest oil company, so they have a fair amount of money to throw around.
They also have former French internationals Damien Traille and Jean Bouilhou in their ranks but Coughlan has been one of the club’s stand-out performers this year.
Simon Mannix, who was the Munster backs coach under Rod Penney, is the Pau head coach and Coughlan spoke very positively about his leadership skills when he talked to The42 earlier in the season.
The club also reportedly tabled an offer of €500,000 per year for All Blacks out-half Colin Slade, although he has yet to agree to join.
Pau have the kind of money that makes Toulon’s comic book mogul look like he’s running a lemonade stand, and it will be interesting to see how aggressive they are in the transfer marker ahead of next season.
Even when on the bench he didn’t get game time. The coach doesn’t like or trust him. Saturday once again showed just how wrong O’connor has been all season
O’Connor is just all wrong for Leinster.
He has a very big chance next season with Leinster during the World Cup, midfield won’t be as competitive so he should get a good run of matches.
Mark if Darcy doesn’t make the World Cup squad, he’ll play 12 with t’eo at 13. Then Madigan and sexton will be back so the midfield won’t be as easy to get into as you may think
That pop pass from O’Brien
Battle between him and Madigan for the 12 jersey next season.
It’s always to easy to see who coaches ‘just like/don’t like’. When Gopperth played badly it was ignored whereas when Madigan played mediocre or even if Reid played well decisions went against them.
It creates such a poisonous culture as some players start to feel entitled to spots and others feel it doesn’t matter how well they play they won’t get picked. Cody and Fergusson were masters at disregarding players identities and judging on match performance alone. MOC is such a stink manager.