Both the timing of Pat Lam’s announcement that he is leaving Connacht at the end of the season, and his next port of call, namely Bristol, will have surprised and even shocked some Connacht supporters, although his stunning achievements with the province always made it likely that a financially more remunerative offer would tempt him away.
The most disappointing aspect of his leaving is that it comes at the start of a week when Connacht are preparing for their first of back-to-back European Champions Cup games against Premiership high flyers Wasps in Coventry next Sunday. There then follows two Christmas derbies, including a New Year’s Eve game against a resurgent Munster at the Sportsground which, like Saturday week’s match at home to Wasps, is already virtually a sell-out.
Lam only informed the Connacht hierarchy over the weekend, before then telling the playing squad and rest of the staff on Monday morning. It was inevitable that a cash-rich French or English club would come calling, and there had been rumours of an offer from his former club Northampton, who have struggled this season and released attack coach Alex King last month, and latterly Leicester.
That he will take over at Bristol is particularly surprising given they are at the foot of the Premiership table with ten defeats from ten games, and thus Lam will most probably be plotting a promotion bid from the English Championship next season.
As with taking over the reins from Connacht, no doubt the scale of the challenge facing Lam would appeal to him, although the heat will quickly escalate if he were not to win promotion at the first attempt. No doubt too, the scale of the financial package on offer to Lam also made it hard for him to say no. It is understood that the West Country club have offered him an annual salary in the region of €750,000, dwarfing his wages at Connacht or indeed any other coach in Irish rugby, including Joe Schmidt.
Bristol finally won promotion last season after finishing top of the Championship for the third year running, beating Doncaster in the play-offs after previous defeats to London Welsh and Worcester. In addition to benefitting from Premiership Rugby's lucrative television deal with BT Sport and the guarantee of parachute payments even if they're relegated, the ambitious West Country club are backed by the club's majority shareholder Stephen Lansdown.
A co-founder with Peter Hargreaves of UK financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown, he is also a majority shareholder of the basketball club Bristol Flyers and Bristol City Football Club, whose new football stadium he helped to finance. As of September 2015 his net worth was reported to be €1.75 billion.
Given Lam and his wife Stefanie have a young family of five children, there is understanding within the province that the Bristol offer was simply too good for Lam to reject, as well as an appreciation for the extraordinary legacy he will leave at Connacht; the highlight, so far, being last season’s Guinness Pro12 success which culminated in their 20-10 victory over Leinster in last May’s final at Murrayfield.
Admittedly, this will be mixed with disappointment that he is not seeing out the remainder of his current contract, which wasn’t due to expire until the end of next season. Clearly though, Lam had an escape clause in his contract which permitted him to move on if a better offer came along.
There will also be a fear as to the consequences of his leaving, and the disappointment amongst the players was manifested in Bundee Aki, who along with Ultan Dillane, recently signed a new deal to stay with the province. On his twitter account, Aki declared he is “really pissed”.
However, as with Eric Elwood announcing his surprising decision to step down early in the 2012-13 season, the timing of Lam's announcement at least allows Connacht ample time to find a replacement.
There will be a meeting of the Connacht rugby advisory board this week who, in tandem with the province’s Professional Game Board and the IRFU Performance Director David Nucifora, will outline the type of character they will look to succeed Lam as well as the process they will undergo. They will most likely start that process next week.
Many of the usual candidates will no doubt be mentioned in despatches, Eddie O'Sullivan, Michael Bradley, the former Connacht hooker Bernard Jackman, who is now at Grenoble and was installed as Paddy Power's early co-favourite at 9/2 along with Academy director Nigel Carolan, and maybe even Jake White, whose name is never far from any prospective coaching vacancy although he is assuredly out of Connacht's budget. Stuart Lancaster, under contract with Leinster until the end of the season, is another who might enter the frame.
Almost certainly, Connacht have no-one clearly in mind just yet. Indeed, at this juncture four years ago when first looking for Elwood's replacement, the name Pat Lam would not have been uppermost amongst those as a likely replacement. Ditto the aforementioned Joe Schmidt when Leinster initially began looking for someone to succeed Michael Cheika. Most likely therefore, it might even be somebody yet to emerge, be it from the southern or northern hemispheres.
Undoubtedly, expectations are now higher and Lam will be a tough act to follow but then again part of his legacy, as well as the thorough overhaul of the organisation in latter years and the strategic plan Grassroots to Green Shirts, is that Connacht are in an altogether better place than was the case four years ago.
Aside from being better run these days, the squad is deeper and of a higher quality, the conveyor belt from their Academy has never been so prolific, their fan base has grown hugely, their relationship with the IRFU is better and their financial position is significantly stronger.
All in all, Connacht are an inestimably more attractive proposition for a coach of the calibre of Eric Elwood and Pat Lam than they were when Elwood and then Lam assumed the reins.
