WITH TWO WEEKS remaining until their pre-season gets underway, there’s still been no movement from Leinster on appointing a new head coach.
Kurt McQuilkin has joined the province on a two-month contract as a defence specialist, but it’s looking likely that Leo Cullen will lead the province into the season at the helm of the coaching team.
The former lock, who retired from playing as recently as 2014, was appointed head coach on an interim basis after the departure of Matt O’Connor, with academy manager Girvan Dempsey promoted to take control of the backs and attack.
Initially that was seen as a measure for the pre-season, but a lack of interest in the Leinster job has taken their Professional Games Board [PGB] somewhat by surprise and it may be that Cullen and Dempsey actually end up in situ until the turn of the year or even for the entire 2015/16 season.
The fact that Leinster’s PGB seemingly had no set plan in place when they parted ways with O’Connor has been one of the most alarming aspects of this episode, and it’s understood that even some of the province’s players have been frustrated by that lack of planning.
The PGB’s impression was that the Leinster job was highly coveted and while they have had coaches making contact about the vacant head coaching position, there has been a lack of the expected quality in those propositions.
The stark reality is that the Leinster gig simply isn’t hugely attractive for top coaches right now.
World Cup duties mean the eastern province could be shorn of somewhere in the region of 15 players for the opening rounds of the Guinness Pro12, then the same again during the 2016 Six Nations.
Even a handful of defeats during the international windows would potentially leave Leinster in a poor position for the 2016/17 European season due to the Pro12 qualifiers now being meritocratically decided.
Just two weeks after the World Cup ends, Leinster’s Champions Cup campaign gets underway against one of Toulon, Bath or Wasps, with another European tie a week later.
That fortnight-long window to prepare the team certainly isn’t alluring for any renowned head coach looking at the Leinster gig, although the same applies for any burgeoning coaching talents glancing at the job.
O’Connor’s brief but public spat with Joe Schmidt and the IRFU over the player management system is another negative; it’s very clear who the top dogs in Irish rugby circles are.
Having limited influence in terms of recruitment at Leinster, both due to the NIQ regulations and a far smaller base of investment from non-union sources than in England and France is another reason the Leinster position doesn’t look too tasty for some.
The awareness that a Pro12 title, Champions Cup semi-final and Heineken Cup quarter-final over the course of two years isn’t enough to satisfy the province is yet another red X for those who might have been candidates to succeed O’Connor.
Clearly, there are factors that might be attractive at Leinster – none more so than a talented playing group led by the likes of Johnny Sexton and Sean O’Brien – but given the timing, the World Cup season, everything else, those elements fade from the foreground.
The appointment of McQuilkin is certainly a wise move from Leinster, given that he is a strong character, understands the province intimately, and is a superb coach on a technical, tactical and mental level.
Though he may well have eyes for the Ireland position to be vacated by Less Kiss post-World Cup, Leinster would do well to tie him down for the remainder of the season at least.
There is still a possibility that Leinster’s PGB will pull an impressive rabbit out of the hat, but the feeling right now is that Cullen, Dempsey, McQuilkin, new scrum coach John Fogarty and skills specialist Richie Murphy might control the 2015/16 campaign in its entirety.
There is further scope for Leinster to bring in an attack specialist from abroad – such as Tony Brown – to allow Dempsey to continue his superb work with the academy, but it’s unlikely to be a big-name addition.
Allowing Cullen and that backroom staff a season to prove themselves would also provide Leinster with time to recruit a top man of the highest calibre to join in the summer of 2016, giving that person time to map out the full pre-season himself and with no World Cup to worry about.
Similarly, waiting until the end of 2015 would allow the Southern Hemisphere season to finish up, potentially opening possibilities from that part of the world. Again, the chance to come in in January and begin to plan the 2016/17 season with a ‘free shot’ at the second half of 2015/16 is more attractive.
The timing for those scenario would certainly be far more ideal, the Leinster job looking a great deal more enticing. Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins contract expires at the end of next season and he would certainly be the type of figure the province would love to appoint.
A former Leinster player himself, with a proven track record both as a hands-on coach and now as director of rugby at Quins, O’Shea is the kind of strong personality that Leinster appear to be crying out for.
If it proves to be the case that Leinster give their young interim coaching team six months or even a full season in charge, Cullen and co. would obviously be intent on proving themselves to such an extent that they became the long-term staff.
A challenge and an opportunity.
With their Champions Cup group added to their missing front liners for the Rugby World Cup this pig is going to need a lot more lipstick before it starts to look attractive.
I hear Sam Allerdice is available.
Who want’s a big name appointment?
Who expected one?
Gibbes was my dream candidate and he was hardly a big name, considering his inexperience as a head coach.
I’d be very happy with Tony Brown.
Going by what tony Browne has produced with highlanders, he could be the new joe Schmidt. He is quality. They should throw money at him and hope it’s sticks
Who have they approached? who’s turned them down?
If Leo’s left in charge we’ll get thrown out of the pro 12 on grounds of taking the piss and treating the competition as a joke.
Chris, I agreed with you on your criticisms of MO’C, but I think you might be jumping the gun with an anti-Leo Cullen crusade before the 2015/2016 pre-season has even started. Give the new gang a chance would you, in ainm Dé.
Ulster have exported 2 coaches to the Premiership without any real expectation they will return. It might be better to encourage Irish coaches to make their mistakes at other clubs where their learning curve maybe shortened by the exposure to more cutting edge methods. The IRFU and by extension the provinces are not doing coaches education any favours by not establishing the structures necessary to provide Irish coaches the opportunities to learn and make mistakes away from the spotlight of home fans.
If Tony Brown comes, it’ll be as head coach, also there’s no point in “tying McQuilkin down” – if the IRFU want him, the contract with Leinster means nothing, as it’s essentially the same organisation and a transfer to a higher profile, higher paying job. Joe Schmidt had another year to run on his Leinster deal when he became the Irish coach.
It’s a strange article though, who was expecting a high profile appointment? There’s absolutely no precedent for that and every time a provincial job comes up, the same rubbish speculation does the rounds with Robbie Deans, Jake White, Nick Mallet etc.. it’s nonsense, it’s always going to be either a very highly rated assistant coach *such as Schmidt and *ahem* O’Connor) or a lower level head coach (such as Cheika).
I also don’t know if there’s any disappointment or panic going around, the feeling I got through the grape vine is that there’s an appointment in the works towards the end of the year – so either after the world cup or after the Southern Hemisphere season, so the first couple of months of the job may be done on an interim basis – which would make sense bringing in some short term knowledge to sure things up.
Strange article by your standards Murray!
Hear hear !!
If we fail to get a new head coach I hope it’s dempsey who is instilled as the new head coach temporarily for the season rather than Cullen, he’s got the A team playing some very good rugby and could potentially us back playing like we should be.
Definitely. If they are having trouble attracting the right coach then give it to Dempsey for a year. The guy has the right pedigree and has a lot more coaching experience than Cullen.
Mike Ruddock?
Also nothing really new here, when Gibbes signed his extension with Clermont, then writing was on the wall that Leinster were going to go with this interim staff for awhile.
The National team is the sole focus of the IRFU. Everything in the set-up is geared towards producing and protecting Irish players. This has shown itself to be a success over the last number of years. It is however, to the detriment of the Provincial sides as they are now just small cogs in the bigger machine. Limited foreign players allowed and limited number of games you can play your best Irish players has the Provinces hands tied. It is nearly impossible now for the Provinces to compete with the big English and French clubs. Of course that is going to be unattractive to any good coach with assperations of winning silverware. If an Irish Province manages to win a European cup in the current climate, it will be a success comparable to Ireland winning the World cup.
Funnily enough I’d say rob Penny would have been the perfect fit for Leinster. I lived him st Munster even though we prob weren’t best suited to his style of play! No matter who’s in our group under our current ticket were not at much.
Certainly any new applicant would consider the options and after the World Cup would be a safer bet considering the negative comments that rain down on the coaching team if Leinster lose or play a style of rugby of which they don’t approve.
My thinking would be let Cullen a co have a crack at it and then bring in O’Shea when his contract is up. Lots of province history with that line up.
What coach wouldn’t want to coach the 3rd province with an ageing squad whose fans have expectations to be the best team in Europe!
Crazy, populist decision to sack MOC with nobody lined up. Leinster have a completely unrealistic view of themselves, I’ll be readying the popcorn to enjoy the Leo Cullen show next season!
Yawn…..
Great to see McQuilkin back. He made a massive difference to Leinster last time around.
Alan.
#ossie4leinster
#marty4leinster