A whiff of Cordite

[Dave Cahill]

I think the MK article was generous in its interpretations.

Saying that cutting Pienaar was done for Cooney is off the mark. It worked out in the end, but accidentally. Cooney toured with Ireland before he spent 1 day in Ulster. He's fighting it out for 3rd choice scrumhalf.

Its hard to quantify Nucifora's impact for Ireland because of Joe's role.

Nucifora's real impact has been on signings like Kleyn, JHP, and Marshall.

He talks about hard decisions but he just accommodates blazers in Munster. If he could make hard decisions Carbery would be in Ulster.

Its also notable, but I am open to correction on this, that this is the first time he has ever done a presser. I wonder why he decided to do one now and on the other side of the world.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I've worked for plenty of Project Managers, both good and bad, who left abruptly because of various concerns about the security of their jobs or the prospect of more money. I've never pointed the finger at the person who hired them, it's always a personal thing as to why they left, and when they were poor they were never totally inept or anything, circumstances tended to play a part in how useful they were.

Unfortunately we were never in the business of winning domestic leagues or European cups, or getting to the knockout stages of those competitions, but if that was the measure of success and we had reached those targets quite successfully then I'd probably roll with the management changes and give credit to the guy who oversaw it all, instead of taking every opportunity possible to criticise the guy for things that he may not be to blame for at all and ignoring context entirely.

[Oldschoolsocks]

I work in a market dominated by FTC's and if any project I worked on had that kind of attrition someone would have a lot of uncomfortable questions to answer. A fixed term contract is still a contract for a fixed term (if that isn't being too literal). You don't just give someone a term by pulling a duration out of the air, you do it because you want them to stay that long (at least) all other things being equal. Ultimately no project will succeed if your staff keep walking out the door because you insisted on bilateral release clauses or you keep firing them because they were bad hires in the first place,

I worked for a quite a time in the FTC world too and in my experience a lot of FTCs are used to fill what is seen as a necessary but non permanent role - could be project work, could be BAU work that is seen as necessary in the short to medium term but essentially not long term. In all of these cases there’s an understanding that job hopping happens much more frequently than in the full time contract world. To manage this you have to accept that at least some of your staff are actively looking for better opportunities, you have to recognise your place in the market, balance what you need to pay, the level of expertise your bringing in etc and always be prepared to go to market when required while hopefully the lead time for hiring doesn’timpact to poorly on deliverable schedules.

So, a small professional playing population has delivered multiple 6N titles, more than one ERCC semi finalist, one ERCC champion and more than one pro14 champion with a relatively high management turnover - I think that points to good management.

[ronk]

Per the article, he does one a year. Maybe it just didn’t get reported directly.

It’s a puff piece to win inside track from MK. I’ve no beef with that. It’s clear that Irish sports writers are fed a lot and the IRFU do fine at killing stories as a result.

That’s one reason why I’m with Dave on the McFarland leak being IRFU. If they wanted it stopped they would have. It was a minor story as a leak.

You can aggressively recruit yourself to temporary success, to go back to business. If you headhunt only mercenaries, you import that attitude and open the whole team to leaving. Your rising team members see that there’s no way up and they hit the road.

[paddyor]

Penny was gone (Foley actually started as head coach on the same day as Nucifora started with the IRFU) and Lam in situ before Nucifora arrived. It was his insistence on a release clause when Lam renewed his contract that allowed Lam (and Erasmus) to leave in the manner he did. I've also not included Leinster dealings at all.

In a period of four years those four positions are filled by 10 different people.

Who were the 10? And how much of it is he really responsible for?

I don't think losing Lam was/is a negative. Keanes appointment didn't work though it has to be said it looked a smart bit of business at the time.

Moving Foley down from head coach was the correct decision IMO and it was a situation he inherited. So he's responsible for 2 appointments. Rassie looked a good and IMO a reliable appointment given the racial quotas and politics of SARU at the time. IIRC you yourself thought that stuff had to happen . I didn't expect things to change or for them to have such a crisis.

I just checked and he was appointed 1/6/2014. Anscombe was out the door at the end of the month, AFAIK it wasn't really his decision. Their problems predate his arrival in general. Hugo did a good article on it. Kiss did what 2 years in all and the results saw a general slide. He did try to bring in a proven forwards coah in Gibbes(who wanted nothing to do with Ulster in the end). I'm not convinced that Rassie was a complete Charlatan, the Bokkes look a lot better than they have in a long time and he seems to have bought into the quotas thing to some extent. Plus the Munster side he left behind made 2 SFs this year.

So of the 10 different people he's directly responsible for the appointment of about 6 of them. 2 of them were flops(Kiss & Keane) & 2 of them haven't got their feet under the table. JVG looks okay so far and Rassie was an improvement on Foley.

[paddyor]

Per the article, he does one a year. Maybe it just didn’t get reported directly.

It’s a puff piece to win inside track from MK. I’ve no beef with that. It’s clear that Irish sports writers are fed a lot and the IRFU do fine at killing stories as a result.

That’s one reason why I’m with Dave on the McFarland leak being IRFU. If they wanted it stopped they would have. It was a minor story as a leak.

You can aggressively recruit yourself to temporary success, to go back to business. If you headhunt only mercenaries, you import that attitude and open the whole team to leaving. Your rising team members see that there’s no way up and they hit the road.

Interesting point and IIRC it was Des Berry who first leaked it on twitter.

OTOH, other than pissing off the Scots and making them dig their heals in for compo, I'm not sure what the IRFU stood to gain from the leak. Also, Ulster leaks like a sieve and there's often a target/victim. IIRC the fact a replacement coach was signed was first announced by Bryn Cunningham (lots of rumours of him bravely trying to sign players only to be foiled by the mean old IRFU- the Vito veto e.g.). Letting it be known that McFarland is contracted up until January puts pressure on the IRFU to buy out his contract

[paddyor]

I think the MK article was generous in its interpretations.

Saying that cutting Pienaar was done for Cooney is off the mark. It worked out in the end, but accidentally. Cooney toured with Ireland before he spent 1 day in Ulster. He's fighting it out for 3rd choice scrumhalf.

Its hard to quantify Nucifora's impact for Ireland because of Joe's role.

Nucifora's real impact has been on signings like Kleyn, JHP, and Marshall.

He talks about hard decisions but he just accommodates blazers in Munster. If he could make hard decisions Carbery would be in Ulster.

Its also notable, but I am open to correction on this, that this is the first time he has ever done a presser. I wonder why he decided to do one now and on the other side of the world.

It's not the first time he's done a presser. Is it not a bit dangerous grinding an axe one handed and posting at the same time?

[Dave Cahill]

I think the MK article was generous in its interpretations.

Saying that cutting Pienaar was done for Cooney is off the mark. It worked out in the end, but accidentally. Cooney toured with Ireland before he spent 1 day in Ulster. He's fighting it out for 3rd choice scrumhalf.

Its hard to quantify Nucifora's impact for Ireland because of Joe's role.

Nucifora's real impact has been on signings like Kleyn, JHP, and Marshall.

He talks about hard decisions but he just accommodates blazers in Munster. If he could make hard decisions Carbery would be in Ulster.

Its also notable, but I am open to correction on this, that this is the first time he has ever done a presser. I wonder why he decided to do one now and on the other side of the world.

It's not the first time he's done a presser. Is it not a bit dangerous grinding an axe one handed and posting at the same time?

Not really if you know what you're doing.

When did he do a presser before? i'm not talking about the Pravda videos shot by the IRFU before he focks off to Erinsborough every christmas.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

He certainly did an interview on Against the Head years ago...but also...why does he have to do any press at all?

[Dave Cahill]

He certainly did an interview on Against the Head years ago...but also...why does he have to do any press at all?

Yeah, I remember that car crash alright now - not exactly a presser, but you are right.

Why indeed? And why now?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Probably because he felt he had to reply to the backlash about the women's team not going to Australia.

[ronk]

There’s honey to be collected from one provinces fans and damage limitation in 2.

[Dave Cahill]

Probably because he felt he had to reply to the backlash about the women's team not going to Australia.

He seems to be a bit scared of the women - he did ATH after another clusterfuck regarding the womens team.

Luckily for him nothing in any way controversial happened in Irish rugby in-between that might have warranted a comment.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Personally I don't expect to hear from him about the vast majority of issues. You can use it as another irrelevant stick to beat him with, but personally I don't give a toss.

[Dave Cahill]

Personally I don't expect to hear from him about the vast majority of issues. You can use it as another irrelevant stick to beat him with, but personally I don't give a toss.

I couldn't care less if we never heard from him. I care that he's doing his job well. He isn't.

edit: And we're being used as the band-aid.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

By many measures, he is.

[Logorrhea]

BTW, the quality of the MK analysis pieces is right at the top of the class and often discussed among players and some of the Pro coaches.

I very much doubt that to be honest.

[paddyor]

By many measures, he is.

Yep.

[EarthGorilla]

He talks about hard decisions but he just accommodates blazers in Munster. If he could make hard decisions Carbery would be in Ulster.

I couldn't agree more with this. Self serving nonsense.

Nucifora is by some measures doing a good job but longer term it will remain to be seen what impact he is going to have on the provincial culture over here. We are a small nation who proportionately punch well above our weight and that culture is a big reason why. He talked about wanting to avoid parochialism, but IMO, that parochialism drove the standards way up. If we lose that, what is our competitive advantage?



On a sidenote - I really wish Drico would take a few Rennie before going on air on OTB. Constantly seems to have the burps every time he is on the show. It distracts from his otherwise excellent analysis.

[fourthirtythree]

Now maybe Cooney was lying, who knows, but he said that he rang up Ulster himself and that Nucifora had nothing to do with it.

Now maybe it was a grand plan and Nucifora saw that Cooney would be the answer to Ulster's no.9 problems and Nucifora is just politely not saying that Cooney's pants are on fire. Who knows?

But certainly Murray has now got himself a few "scoops" of the kind that journalists should not want promised in the future for this.