Id expect one of Seib or Tucker to be the nominal head coach which is all wrong but it's what I expect to happen. Id be surprised if we bring a designated head coach in but hope I'm wrong.
I would expect 2 additional coaches to be appointed to stay at normal levels in Irish Provincial Rugby.
On the 16th of April when Wilkins was announced as departing David Humphries was quoted as saying "the club will now begin the process of recruiting a new head coach for the 2025/26" I am happy to take that at face value. Perhaps an existing coach will be appointed but then they will have to replace that assistant coach.
A coach that's big on club culture would be my preference.
On the Stats we are number one lineout in the league… It just doesn't feel that way especially after Saturday, it looked very amateurish on Saturday…
I totally agree with you.. Neither those guys should be made head coach… They already have jobs, if Tucker becomes head coach, are we getting a new scrum coach…. Same with Rod….
We have two vacant roles and they need to ben filled…
Basically taking coaches that haven't done a job like Head coach and ask them to do while doing there own job, that is complete madness.
We should be looking at a short list of available candidates if even for 6 months…
Off the top of my head coaches:
Micheal Bradley is a possible. (UCC)
Wayne Pivac (Japan Second Tier)
Better start throwing out names…
That is what I would expect…
There is an advatange to looking for two coaches, a Head coach could be able to bring in someone they trust and makes the job more attractive…
I think Connacht should be a pretty easy sell:
They have a good young squad
Expectation are pretty low
There is no relegation
Finances are solid (they ain't going backrupt in November)
This is pretty good in this climate… You have also access to more players with a massive array of youth talent around…
There are a lot of worse sides… This is a side you could make a name with…
Properly coached, Connacht are top 5 -8 URC on this year and Semis in challenge cup… Fans would be very happy with that… Get a win over Racing and Lyon and into a final, Brucey Bonus…
Open to most suggestions but please not Michael Bradley. 🤣 He was working with very limited resources to be fair but first year or two aside that was still an extremely hard time to be a Connacht fan and personally I don't want to be reminded of it. As well as that he's a few years out of the pro game now and time has moved on.
If they were going down the route where Seib or Tucker weren't the nominal head coach but they hadn't appointed anyone as head coach I'd expect Millard to be plugged into that role in the interim until they find an option.
There's time available before pre season kicks off and you'd hope they have a plan for a head coach in the pipeline as it looks like the Wilkins situation was known since around January but my gut feeling is Seib was brought in with that head coach role in mind. They had to sort the Wilkins situation out so couldn't announce that at the time.
Would Stuart Lancaster be an option ? Still hasn't found a job after leaving France. Has said he is open to taking a number 2 job at club. He knows the Irish system.
Bernard Jackman mentioning a rumour of Devine to La Rochelle.
Given That ROG is far from certain to keep his job I would be careful not to get carried away with that one.
The fact that the conversation was meant to be about Connacht but, because he knows **** all about Connacht, the only insight Donal Lenihan had was to talk about current Munster players.
Smith and Kilgallen are good players, but they are gone because we have better. Farrell is a tricky one, but again the context of his injuries wasn't taken into account.
O gara is looking for him on a one year loan, it's very much a possibility.
If he signed a 3 year contract and went on loan for 1 year it might not be the worst thing.
I met John Dobson the day before the Connacht match a couple of months ago. He told me he loves coming to Galway that it's a wonderful place. Maybe he'd be interested. 😁
He's the Stormers head coach in case you don't know.
Jackman late to the rumour as usual. IRFU have already vetoed Devine's move to LAR, although the player himself was keen. One of our three SH's will be off to Ulster which is why the LAR move was stymied.
Haven't they already signed Le Garrec? He's going to be their number one 9.
If that goes through isn't it great the irfu can force players to move around when some provinces have too many players in one position....
If someone was moving would it not have been mentioned pregame at the weekend?
More details in the last two paragraphs… Devine generates a lot of interest since Murphy has contract…
That is why I was suggesting swaps with Leinster for Murphy… Murphy could be an heir apparent for JGP, he is from Leinster and Devine is from Connacht… It would seem more natural that players play for there home province… We have a shopping list…
We need a outhalf, bulk in our pack, Full Back(sourced this week),….
I don't think we would get Murphy for Frawley. Frawley would have gone by now…
Farrell was let go from our squad… Wilkins didn't play him and was considered surplus to requirements… He was fit for the last four months for Connacht and Wilkins didn't play him….
I would say the same about Smith, his face didn't fit either.
Killgallen you are totally right about, Munster were light in back 3 and more game time available there… Unlucky with injury…
Niall Murray started 5 out 7 games R2 to R9 URC and has only played 16 min in 2025… That is hard to explain… He is a thousand min a year man for the previous 3 seasons…
The coaching set up we had seemed to have players fall out of favour and just put in the frige (a Jackman term)…
Farrell just showed how wrong that was..
Porch as well was completely frozen out.
If I was Ulster I would look at Blade… They need a senior head in that position at the moment… Devine is learning his game and the pressure of being Number 1 at a province trying to rebuild might not be the right fit… IMHO
More I think about it… The coaching team were under so much pressure they closed in and just picked with very little trust…
It makes more sense… Very stressed and going with what they know rather than any deviation or experiment…
It very quickly turns the team into a quagmire, competition is limited, gameplay becomes predictable… It maybe a possibility on what happened…
In the Indo that Jared Payne is one of the candidates for the Connacht head coach job. Connacht also looking in the Australian market for candidates.
Jarad Payne seems a more solid choice… Has definitely got the experience…
He was in charge of Clermont halfway through the season (22/23) and he brought them from loosing record of (5 -8 -1) (under Gibbs) to a (6-6-0)… That is respectable and good considering he was handed the team mid season…
Hugh Hogan stepping down as defence coach of the women's team. Interesting to see where he is going.
Got fair bit experience from various levels inside Leinster and Ireland…. I don't know them from Adam but I get a nicer feeling from Jarad, he has done reasonably well in every job and I could see him settling in Galway.
Are Ulster still looking for a replacement for Bell aswell?
Na… They replaced him with Willie Faloon in Febuary….
Wouldn't mind Payne heading things up. Is he still with Clermont?
Forgot that thanks
According to Wikipedia he was with Scarlets in 2023 and doesn't currently have any listed coaching position but I don't know if he's coaching somewhere and it's just not been updated
He is still at scarletts..
https://www.scarlets.wales/rugby-management/
I am growing towards him, he just makes a lot of sense… I would give him a free hand as much as possible… If we want to hold him to account , he has to be given the responsibility…
I never got the feeling that Pete had hire and fire abilities with the coaches… You do with Murphy in Ulster…
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