News: Michael Chieka has emerged as a somewhat surprising dark horse to be the next coach of Leinster along with his Randwick coaching assistant Andrew Knox, the former Wallabies' outhalf.
Chieka, of Lebanese extraction who had a lengthy club career as a number eight with Randwick before also playing with the New South Wales Waratahs under Matt Williams, has effectively taken the same route into coaching as Alan Gaffney and would most likely have been vouched for by the former Leinster assistant coach and Munster head coach.
Likewise, so too would Knox, a stylish, gifted if mercurial outhalf in his playing days, who is regarded as a very innovative backs' coach.
It is my understanding that the Leinster hierarchy of team manager Paul McNaughton, chief executive Mick Dawson and Bryan McLoughlin, chairman of Leinster's provincial management committee, have headhunted Chieka as part of an intensive research into a prospective successor to Declan Kidney.
However, a decision will not be made until later in the week and it is not a done deal yet, with at least one other strong candidate in the frame.
Nonetheless, in what would undoubtedly be a sizeable gamble given he is stepping up from the Australian equivalent of the AIL, Chieka would now appear to be the leading contender.
A clever player, who earned a reputation as a bit of a firebrand in his playing days, the 38-year-old Chieka comes with a reputation as one of the up-and-coming new breed of innovative Australian coaches.
He was the New South Wales coach of the year last season after guiding Randwick to the Premiership title.
He applied for the new Super 14 franchise in Perth, but declined to take up an offer as their assistant coach when the former All Blacks coach John Mitchell was chosen ahead of him.
The Leinster hierarchy appear to want to make a fresh start with a new broom rather than opt for more experienced candidates such as former Leinster and Scottish coach Matt Williams - whose candidature had been touted by several leading players - John Kirwan, Kevin Putt, Lynn Howells and others.
* The IRFU have made Brian McLaughlin technical coach for the national team, writes Gavin Cummiskey. The RBAI schoolteacher is to take a sabbatical from his day job and steps down as coach of Ballynahinch to focus on professional coaching.
McLaughlin has guided RBAI to five Ulster schools' cups in the past 10 years and played in an Ards backrow alongside Philip Matthews and Nigel Carr during the 1980s before injury brought a premature end to his career.
