Bradley lands top role at Edinburgh

pollypigwash

Bradley lands top role at Edinburgh

By Hugh Farrelly

Tuesday May 03 2011

Michael Bradley is back in professional coaching after landing the director of rugby role at Edinburgh.
It is understood that the ex-Connacht coach has secured the position on a two-year deal following the resignation of Rob Moffat earlier this year.
Bradley coached Connacht for seven years, winning the Celtic Rugby Chairman's Award at the end of last season before deciding to move on, with his assistant Eric Elwood taking over the head coach's role.
He has since been helping out with Georgia and with Midleton in the All-Ireland League, but the Edinburgh role marks a return to full-time professional coaching.
Bradley, a former Ireland captain who won 40 caps at scrum-half, has coached Ireland 'A' and was interim senior coach on the 2008 summer tour before Declan Kidney took full control.
Front-runner
Former Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan was a front-runner for the Edinburgh position but was ruled out over the weekend.
His commitment to the US Eagles for the World Cup is believed to have been a factor in Edinburgh deciding to look elsewhere.
Other candidates in the running were Munster's departing forwards coach Laurie Fisher and former Wasps director of rugby Tony Hanks.
Meanwhile, there was relief in Leinster yesterday after no player was cited following their Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Toulouse on Saturday and there are also no injury worries.
There had been fears that flanker Sean O'Brien would have a case to answer after clashing with Toulouse counterpart Yannick Nyanga who held back the Tullow man as he was attempting to prevent Louis Picamoles' second-half try.
Elsewhere, reports in Australia claim new Brumbies coach Jake White has targeted Ulster's Ruan Pienaar as one of his big-name signings. The South African joined Ulster at the start of the season on a two-year deal.
- Hugh Farrelly

ormond lad

Bradley is going to need plenty of luck if you read this article in the Scotsman about the appointment. I hope he does well for himself and them.


SRU poised to name Michael Bradley new coach of Edinburgh

Michael Bradley: Surprise choice.


Published Date: 03 May 2011
By David Ferguson and Iain Morrison
THE SRU will spring a major surprise this week when it names former Connacht chief Michael Bradley as the new Edinburgh head coach on a two-year contract instead of the more experienced ex-Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan.


The Scotsman understands that Bradley has beaten off O'Sullivan, along with former Wasps coach Tony Hanks, Munster's Australian coaches Alan Gaffney and Laurie Fisher and Connacht assistant Brian Melrose. O'Sullivan, who led Ireland to three Triple Crowns between 2004 and 2007, was the speculative favourite, but it is believed that the SRU - Gordon McKie (chief executive), Andy Robinson (national coach), Graham Lowe (director of performance rugby) and Edinburgh chief executive Craig Docherty were on the interviewing panel - were concerned that he was not going to be available until after his current duties with the US Eagles end at the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup in October. That in itself is intriguing as Robinson, widely seen as the best coaching appointment made in Scottish professional rugby, did not take up his post at Edinburgh until after the 2007 World Cup due to media commitments at the tournament.

McKie, Robinson and Lowe sacked Rob Moffat in January after just 18 months in the post, without consulting Docherty, and installed his assistant Nick Scrivener on an interim basis to the end of the season. The Australian will return home next month and is understood to be in line for a role in the Wallaby national coaching set-up.

Bradley, however, is a strange choice. Though a former Ireland scrum-half and captain with 40 caps, who coached Ireland U21 and Ireland A sides and stepped in briefly on tour when the national side was waiting for Declan Kidney to come on board, the 48-year-old has been passed over for positions with the leading Irish provinces and so is not yet a professional coach of any pedigree never mind the kind of experienced international coachthe SRU seemed to have in its grasp with O'Sullivan. The fact that the SRU has dropped below that level of expertise not available in Scotland will re-ignite the debate over why it continues to refuse to promote a Scottish coach, with former internationalists Peter Wright and Craig Chalmers, and other leading clubs coaches Ally Donaldson at Currie or Ayr's Kenny Murray, having consistently proven themselves capable at the level below the pro game.

Bradley was born in County Cork and coached his old club Cork Constitution before taking over at Connacht in 2003. He was there for seven years, during which time the team struggled to escape the basement. In his first season Connacht finished a record high of ninth, above Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Borders, with eight wins from 22 games. They have not won more than five games in one season since, but did finish above Glasgow and the Borders in the next three. In the past three seasons they have finished in bottom spot despite losing only once in six games with Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Bradley was always up against it with what is widely recognised as Ireland's development side, yet there has been praise for his successor, Eric Elwood, after a noticeable improvement at the Galway Sportsground this season. With seven wins and one game remaining Connacht could finish this season above both of the Italian and Scottish sides.

Since stepping down at Connacht, Bradley has had a brief stint with Georgia before the IRB put Richie Dixon, the former Scotland coach, in charge, and coached the backs at second division Cork club Midleton while waiting for another opportunity in the pro game.

What may have attracted the SRU to Bradley was his ability to work with meagre resources. Edinburgh operate on a very similar budget to Connacht - playing budget of £3.6m, with actual player salary costs under £3m, which has been frozen for the foreseeable future. And while Connacht made little impression on the league under Bradley they did reach the European Challenge Cup semi-finals three times, losing to eventual champions Harlequins and Sale in 2003-4 and 2004-5 and French high-flyers Toulon last year. Having stressed the difficulties the SRU is having with increasing revenues at the professional teams, that is perhaps where McKie, Robinson and Lowe see Edinburgh's immediate future.

As the teams themselves are forced increasingly to hunt bargain buys among players, it may also point to a similar approach being taken to coaching with the tightening of the Murrayfield belts such that no more salaries are available in the near-£300,000 bracket occupied by McKie, his finance director Eamon Hegarty and Robinson. This may also have been an obstacle to appointing O'Sullivan.

Neither Bradley, the SRU or Edinburgh could be contacted for comment last night, but an official announcement this week will be expected to shed light on the reasons behind the appointment.

WeeBushy

Hardly a ringing endorsement...

Good luck to him, its always good to see Irish coaches appointed in the top job. There are only a handful of Irish head coaches in rugby at the moment.

pajunior

My initial thought is to agree with the article that the SRU couldn't afford O'Sullivan and the Bradley might be the best on a small budget.

Well done to the lad, I hope he does well, Edinburgh can hardly get worse.

thomond2006

Confirmed by the Beeb.

buck65

Strange choice. Not very ambitious. A bit like Scottish rugby.

brianthebard

ormond lad wrote: »

Bradley, however, is a strange choice. Though a former Ireland scrum-half and captain with 40 caps, who coached Ireland U21 and Ireland A sides and stepped in briefly on tour when the national side was waiting for Declan Kidney to come on board, the 48-year-old has been passed over for positions with the leading Irish provinces and so is not yet a professional coach of any pedigree never mind the kind of experienced international coach the SRU seemed to have in its grasp with O'Sullivan.

Have Edinburgh been to the semi finals of the amlin much lately? If not then the scotsman should stfu. Yeah Bradley might not have 'pedigree' but the scotsman seem to think Edinburgh are too good for a former Connacht coach, they need a healthy dose of reality. Have no personal feelings for or against Bradley tbh, just think the above sort of statement are snide and fairly ignorant.

wixfjord

Hmmm, bad appointment I would say, but time will tell.
Hopefully he will get something done about Murrayfield, and get them playing something other than that awful side to side rugby.
There's the nucleus of an alright team there.

CatFromHue

connacht won 8 in 03/04, 7 in 04/05, and 6 in 05/06. They finished up with 5 wins last season which did not include their cup run in the amlin.

they've won 7 so far this season, this includes 2 home wins against the italian teams though. they were also knocked out of the amlin pretty quickly this season.

on games won alone it turns out elwoods record isnt much better than bradleys, unless he beats munster on the weekend!

i do feel bradley stayed too long with connacht and will be interested to see how he gets on in edinburgh.

if it was a straight choice between bradley and o sullivan id chose o sullivan.

bamboozle

CatFromHue wrote: »

connacht won 8 in 03/04, 7 in 04/05, and 6 in 05/06. They finished up with 5 wins last season which did not include their cup run in the amlin.

they've won 7 so far this season, this includes 2 home wins against the italian teams though. they were also knocked out of the amlin pretty quickly this season.

on games won alone it turns out elwoods record isnt much better than bradleys, unless he beats munster on the weekend!

i do feel bradley stayed too long with connacht and will be interested to see how he gets on in edinburgh.

if it was a straight choice between bradley and o sullivan id chose o sullivan.

Elwoods results are much better especially being hamstrung with only being able to offer players 1 year deals, big difference for connacht this season is that they have not been getting hammered in away games.

razorblunt

Ah I had half a notion this was going to happen, he was on the flight back to Cork that I took to come home for Easter.

Best of luck to him.

CatFromHue

bamboozle wrote: »

Elwoods results are much better especially being hamstrung with only being able to offer players 1 year deals, big difference for connacht this season is that they have not been getting hammered in away games.

i agree the performances have been better. in a new coachs first year in charge this tends to happen eg mcgahan at munster, kidney with ireland.

elwood has taken the club a step in the right direction. not a giant leap just a step. they were out of europe in december which would have helped him focus on the magners. I think he even said it himself that the amlin wasnt his priority. ultimately they will finish ahead of the two new comers, which was to be expected, and glasgow.

bradley stayed too long and got stale with connacht in my opinion.

also wasnt the 1 year contract thing in place last year as well?

Digifriendly

brianthebard wrote: »

Have Edinburgh been to the semi finals of the amlin much lately? If not then the scotsman should stfu. Yeah Bradley might not have 'pedigree' but the scotsman seem to think Edinburgh are too good for a former Connacht coach, they need a healthy dose of reality. Have no personal feelings for or against Bradley tbh, just think the above sort of statement are snide and fairly ignorant.

Not sure we can compare Edinburgh with Connacht in European terms as the former IIRC have never played in the Challenge Cup. They have reached just 2 HEC quarter finals. We simply cannot compare their respective European performances with Connacht as the teams have played in 2 entirely different competitions. I do agree though with the overall point you make.

sock puppet

brianthebard wrote: »

Have Edinburgh been to the semi finals of the amlin much lately? If not then the scotsman should stfu. Yeah Bradley might not have 'pedigree' but the scotsman seem to think Edinburgh are too good for a former Connacht coach, they need a healthy dose of reality. Have no personal feelings for or against Bradley tbh, just think the above sort of statement are snide and fairly ignorant.

They don't compete in the Amlin and they were runner up in the ML just 2 years ago

Jemo

Bradley gets a very hard time on here, Elwood is lauded despite similar enough results. He'll be a good signing for Edinburgh, could reignite his coaching career. I had been hoping he would take a back coaching role with one of the provinces/Ireland but this is better again. At the end of the day, the more Irish coaches out getting top level experience the better. He probably came as close to beating the all blacks as any Irish national team has ever come so can't be all that bad.

We now have:
Kidney - Ireland
O'Sullivan- USA
O'Shea- Harlequins
Bradley- Edinburgh
McCall- Saracens
McLaughlin- Ulster
Elwood- Connacht

That is pretty impressive considering the size of Ireland. Then you can add in guys like Axel, Big Mal, Longwell and Doak who are all performing assistant/ A team roles. (theres others I have forgot to mention too)

jacothelad

Jemo wrote: »

Bradley gets a very hard time on here, Elwood is lauded despite similar enough results. He'll be a good signing for Edinburgh, could reignite his coaching career. I had been hoping he would take a back coaching role with one of the provinces/Ireland but this is better again. At the end of the day, the more Irish coaches out getting top level experience the better. He probably came as close to beating the all blacks as any Irish national team has ever come so can't be all that bad.

We now have:
Kidney - Ireland
O'Sullivan- USA
O'Shea- Harlequins
Bradley- Edinburgh
McCall- Saracens
McLaughlin- Ulster
Elwood- Connacht

That is pretty impressive considering the size of Ireland. Then you can add in guys like Axel, Big Mal, Longwell and Doak who are all performing assistant/ A team roles. (theres others I have forgot to mention too)

.......and Jeremy Davidson.

freyners

balls..didnt see this..sorry about the other thread....


its a good move imo for both parties. Bradley is a good coach...stayed a connacht a year too long maybe but he did some very good work and left a good team for elwood to bring on. Edinburgh have been underperforming for a while and if he can shake the rot they could be a bigger force in the league.

seanin4711

pajunior wrote: »

My initial thought is to agree with the article that the SRU couldn't afford O'Sullivan and the Bradley might be the best on a small budget.

Well done to the lad, I hope he does well, Edinburgh can hardly get worse.

Was delighted to see the back of him as I felt he was like a jockey holding a horse back.
Playing players out of position, a la conor Phillips. Very one dimensional in our gameplay under his tenure and fighting on two fronts(ecc and magners)dessimated our squad.
Outwardly focussed only on home magners league matches and made up the numbers away from home.I was very dissapointed with this standpoint.
The amount of players the he let slip through his fingers over the years Daniel riordan an example.
he is going to be found out bigtime in Edinburgh where a lot more is expected.
I will be surprised if he us still there in two years.
That paper article is spot on, he got the job cos he is affordable end if story.
His connacht record speaks for itself,poor.

Connachts loss is Edinburgh gain:D

SomeFool

jacothelad wrote: »

.......and Jeremy Davidson.

Paul Burke is kicking coach at Leicester.