JOHNNY WATTERSON
So it was with great reluctance that Leo Cullen and Guy Easterby treaded cautiously from injuries and tactical ploys into the politics of sport. Olympic Council of Ireland president Patrick Hickey could have demonstrated a shimmy there, the FAI's John Delaney a cleverly-delivered dummy or the IRFU's Philip Browne a deft blocking move. All talented.
With Wasps on the horizon in the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final and Joe Schmidt in the crosshairs of the media, it was left to Easterby and Cullen to explain that Leinster has, at this stage, made no contingency plans in the event of the IRFU adding a star to Schmidt's lapel and upgrading him from provincial to national coach.
In the tick-tack language and shifting landscape of appointments nothing is as it appears and a declaration of happiness in one job does not explicitly exclude a coach from jumping to another.
Still, Leinster is sticking to with what it has got in Schmidt’s original deal, a contract that expires at the end of next season.
"The contingency plan as it stands is that Joe's contract is up at the end of June 2014 so there is a contingency plan in terms of that," explained Easterby. "Ideally, we would like Joe to stay on longer but he will have a decision to make then in terms of what he wants to do and where he wants to be. But in the short term there is no contingency plan because this is just conjecture. We are working away and, as far as we are concerned, Joe is with us until June of 2014."
Arrived early
That could change though. New Connacht coach Pat Lam arrived early to the Sportsground yesterday.
Michael Bradley and Neil Back left Edinburgh with immediate effect at the beginning of March. Declan Kidney departed from the Irish job before his contract was due to end after the summer tour to the USA and Canada.
Things change.
“Again, I suppose so,” said Easterby uneasily. “I’m not sure what you can do at the moment. You could ring around a couple of people and say ‘are you available? We might need you, we might not’ because there is no certainty.
"It was only announced (Tuesday). No one was really sure what way it was going to go. There was obviously a lot of talk that Declan wouldn't be kept on but the only thing that is certain now is that Declan isn't going to be there. Who will be there is up in the air."
Bring positives
From the players view point, including several from Leinster, the negatives of the change could also bring positives and Kidney's departure could provide opportunity where there was little before. Ian Madigan, Cullen himself, Shane Jennings, Rhys Ruddock, Andrew Trimble, Ian Keatley . . . pick a favourite. Personal relationships aside the players, hard bitten and often despondent by selection calls, seek their own fortunes in times of flux. There are winners and losers.
“The guys that have been getting picked by the coaches are probably a bit, eh, uncertain. A bit saddened,” said Cullen caught between diplomacy and candour.
“The guys who hadn’t been getting picked are probably pretty happy because they see change as potential improvement for their own situation. Because sports people are by nature probably selfish individuals. “It depends. Every situation is completely different. Everyone has preconceived ideas of what is potentially coming in. The big thing with a new coach is that it is, in theory, a clean slate and he will treat everyone in the group as equal and everyone is fighting from the same position from the start. But every new season should be like that anyway.”
What may seem irresistibly convenient and something the IRFU would know without a dossier from an international recruitment company is Schmidt’s qualities and as an IRFU employee if they want him to move they will smooth it. Cullen sees that benefit.
“He is in the system. It wouldn’t take them that much work to find out why he is the coach he is,” said the second row. “I think Joe is a very good coach. No matter what team he’d coach I think he’d do a pretty good job. He’s a pretty good package.”
Yes, but for Leinster or Ireland.
