IT’S BEEN A season of upheaval for Leinster.
Yet here they are gunning for two trophies in three consecutive home games.
Aside from the spate of injuries at pitch level, the men in suits must feel they’ve spent the whole year weighing up their coaching options.
The season began with some uncomfortable shifting as Joe Schmidt’s contract slipped under the 10-month mark. And it ended with the Kiwi coach moving on anyway.
Yesterday, Leinster confirmed that Leicester’s Matt O’Connor would be the man to take up the baton. Having “kept a close eye on” O’Connor in recent years, this was a move some time in the pipeline.
“Originally we were to have 15 months to get this sorted and then it’s down to just a few weeks.” Said Guy Easterby yesterday.
“But I genuinely don’t feel we were not limited in our options – the couple of people we contacted were going to be available if they were offered the job. You can get lucky with the timing, because we are late, we’re into May.”
O’Connor will take over a squad in relative transition. As Schmidt heads out the side door to Lansdowne Road; Jonathan Sexton, Isa Nacewa, Heinke van der Merwe and Andrew Conway will be just some of the players to hear the front door lock behind them.
Foundations
However, the news that Jono Gibbes and the back-room coaching staff will remain when O’Connor comes in means that the disruption will be minimal.
“It’s really important,” says team manager Easterby, “the fact that the coaching staff are staying the same. But also our fitness & conditioning staff, medical, video analysts and academy staff [bar one academy physio]. All those guys are staying on board and I think it means there’s going to be less of a transition.
“Matt’s going to come in and people are going to have to adjust to him because that’s his right as a head coach to try and stamp his mark on it. But he’s clever enough to know that most things are working here and it doesn’t take a revolution, but there is going to be some evolution there.”
When Schmidt arrived from Clermont in 2010, he was fortunate to have Gibbes already in situ with a pack he called his own. O’Connor, Easterby says, demanded the same fortune.
“Rather than being happy (to work with existing staff), that’s what he was requesting. Because he understands what those guys have brought to make this place a success so far.”
A season of change and contingency plans. Yet here they are teetering on the edge of domestic and European success for a third year in a row.
As much as the right coach and a golden generation of players, that comes down to effective forward thinking from the men in the boardroom.
