Matts gone

[Ruckedtobits]

If Leinster want to regain the status they held in Europe for four seasons, this was an essential decision. To regain our stature as one of Europe's great teams, we need to constantly get winning results, with high-quality performances coupled with the regular development of players from our Academy.

MO'C is a good coach but did not appear to exercise sufficient discipline in execution by our players, or introduce enough of our younger players to ensure progression over the past 12 months. Players like Kelleher, Ringrose, McGrath, Leavy and Van der Flyer should all have progressed to more regular game-time. Certainly he has had injuries which have dogged the progress of some, but we aspire to excellence and with Cheiks and St Joe, we produced it regularly for almost 4 years.

Difficult decisions to be made in the coming weeks in finding replacements, but the fact that they did not announce a replacement package today, suggests that this decision was reached since Season end and with some integrity. No way Leinster Rugby could have researched the available coaches or made contact with a preferred candidate or candidates without a leak. IMO, they have handled it well.

Future Leinster Coaches and, possible more importantly, Leinster players will receive the message loud and clear - only excellence is enough

[johng]

All the sh1t from this season will be blamed exclusively on him now. I hope that doesn't paper over the cracks of the real problems.

What excuse will they have next year? Moc gone. Sexton and Isa back.

Hey, he was the master of excuses himself, so perhaps we'll ring him for advice.

True Leinster have problems and no one is expecting an instant return to success.
However it has become very clear over the last few months that MOC was not the man to solve those problems.
And it's not just all problems. We do have some fine young players as well as plenty of top-class internationals.
I'd say the academy backs in particular were thrilled to hear the news, they might get a chance now.

Whoever the new coach is, as long as he sends his team out to play with some ambition, he'll immediately have the crowd on his side.

Tell the truth, even you weren't looking forward to another season of MOC drudgery at the RDS, were you?

Hard to disagree with much in that in fairness. I really wasn't looking forward to another season of blaming everything from the price of a pint in the RDS to the lack of ambition in the backline on him either.

Good to see what will happen with a bit of new coach bounce.

Even the bits that were not down to Moc may improve. Fingers crossed. Certainly something to look forward to.

[Dexter]

Future Leinster Coaches and, possible more importantly, Leinster players will receive the message loud and clear - only excellence is enough

This is probably the really important bit. The message that finishing outside the top third of the league, while playing the way we did, is not acceptable.
It's unfortunate the way it's all turned out, not nice, but I guess it's professional sport. Best of luck to Matt in the future.

[Keith]

All the sh1t from this season will be blamed exclusively on him now. I hope that doesn't paper over the cracks of the real problems.

What excuse will they have next year? Moc gone. Sexton and Isa back.

Perhaps we will have a good season next season? There is no reason why we can't play good rugby and make the knockout stages in both comps.

[leinster4life13]

Would never happen but I'd love to see David Knox given a shot. No matter what would happen we'd have an entertaining season next year

[Keith]

I persume Caputo will remain at Leinster? He seems to be doing a good job with the scrum.

[cormac]

Robbie Deans currently 1/4 with PP for the Leinster job.

[deco]

"Oddly, it appears that O’Connor is actually leaving following a shared agreement and that it was the Australian who put the idea forward.
Back in his homeland, the Queensland Reds are enduring a miserable season under Richard Graham, with the atmosphere within the franchise now poisonous. Players are looking to get out of a sinking ship and Graham’s days are numbered.

O’Connor is believed to feature high on the Reds’ list of candidates to replace Graham ahead of the 2016 Super Rugby season and it appears that having learned as much, O’Connor transmitted his interest in the role.
Clearly, the past year has not been an enjoyable time for O’Connor as his Leinster side have stuttered and failed on the pitch and it seems obvious that the former Leicester coach was enduring rather than thriving.
Naturally enough, Leinster have been greatly disappointed with this season, but the prospect of sacking O’Connor, having to pay up the last year of his deal, and then paying for a new coach on top of that perhaps swayed any concrete thoughts of sacking him.

O’Connor putting forward the idea that he would leave, however, may have been the nudge that Leinster needed. No need for a sacking, no need for a pay-off, but most certainly the opportunity to put a halt to the province’s decline."

http://www.the42.ie/matt-oconnor-leinst ... 8-May2015/

[Lamb of BOD]

One can only hope that the branch also appoint a backs and/or defence coach, and don't expect the next incumbent to triple-job. Leo might still need some help finding his feet, which his head coach can't give to him if he's also trying to do all of the other training.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Phew! I'm with johng on it being wrong that he was blamed for everything but there's no denying that we were in free fall. The rot had well and truly set in and for a long while now I think it's been obvious that he couldn't turn it around. I don't know what the plan was before Schmidt and Nucifora tore strips off him but agree with those saying his job was untenable then.

I feel for MOC, never nice for someone to lose their job and it's even worse when it's public knowledge, he's moved the family over, and had a lot of abuse coming his way etc. I'm not saying he did a good job but aside from the big black mark that was missing out on the top 4 of the league his record was pretty good and I hope he gets a decent job as a result. By all accounts he really is a very nice fella and must have done a good job at Leicester, I would advise him not to go for a head coach role gain though, at least not straight away. With that said, hopefully he'll have learned a lot too and bounce back. I wish him all the best and thank him for his hard work and a league title.

[johng]

I feel for MOC, never nice for someone to lose their job and it's even worse when it's public knowledge, he's moved the family over, and had a lot of abuse coming his way etc. I'm not saying he did a good job but aside from the big black mark that was missing out on the top 4 of the league his record was pretty good and I hope he gets a decent job as a result. By all accounts he really is a very nice fella and must have done a good job at Leicester, I would advise him not to go for a head coach role gain though, at least not straight away. With that said, hopefully he'll have learned a lot too and bounce back. I wish him all the best and thank him for his hard work and a league title.

I'm glad that someone feels for him. A lot of the abuse was way over the top and I hope it did not contribute to his decision.

The wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not a hanging offence and he seemed like a nice bloke. I wish him well.

Perhaps in future people could channel their passion in a more positive (or at least less negative) way.

[simonokeeffe]

To me his biggest failing was that he didnt make the players more responsible, and why he copped a lot of the abuse, and eventually protecting them in public by blaming refs, Joe, injuries becomes damaging

Players were very rarely dropped for underperforming (Ross, Conan not many others), the dirt trackers werent backe publicly or privately

Maybe now Darcy will get an extension or stick around or even play, 2 baby halfbacks and a league convert at 13, he sure would be useful

[Edna Kenny]

I feel for MOC, never nice for someone to lose their job and it's even worse when it's public knowledge, he's moved the family over, and had a lot of abuse coming his way etc. I'm not saying he did a good job but aside from the big black mark that was missing out on the top 4 of the league his record was pretty good and I hope he gets a decent job as a result. By all accounts he really is a very nice fella and must have done a good job at Leicester, I would advise him not to go for a head coach role gain though, at least not straight away. With that said, hopefully he'll have learned a lot too and bounce back. I wish him all the best and thank him for his hard work and a league title.

I'm glad that someone feels for him. A lot of the abuse was way over the top and I hope it did not contribute to his decision.

The wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not a hanging offence and he seemed like a nice bloke. I wish him well.

Perhaps in future people could channel their passion in a more positive (or at least less negative) way.

+1.

Some of the stuff on FB and comments on the 42 were pretty tiresome. Even a positive story was brought down to moaning about either MOC or Gopperth. Whether it's a minority it's hard to tell as there's so much moaning on line but it doesn't reflect well on the supporters. In fairness there was plenty of good argument on here with rugby reasons for criticism. If it is a mutual decision then it says a lot about the man. Some said he would never walk away. Hope he goes on to have a successful future.

[brenno]

This was a commercial decision. Leinster no doubt saw the way attendances slumped down south when Munster went into a downswing and it appears that ST sales this season were slower than last season with a lot of people indicating that they weren't prepared to shell out a load of money up front to watch a repeat of this year's performances.

Yes, MOC seems to be a nicer guy, but maybe too nice. I don't think coach and players should be too matey and some of the stuff coming out from senior players about how much they like MOC and his training methods was a bit too gushing. He allowed some senior players to operate on cruise control - alluded to by Jenno in his Sunday Times interview - and we need some who's prepared to kick a few arses the way Cheika did publicly and Joe did not so publicly.

As to who we get, haven't a clue but Gibbes impressed us all during his time here and seems to be doing a good job in Clermont - but he is kitted out to be a head coach rather than a very good deputy coach. Not sure. Too early for Girve and Leo - and Leo still has a lot to learn before he can ever aspire to a head coach job. Lam would be a good fit but can't see IRFU going along with him jumping ship from Connacht given the progress out west in the past year. Don't buy into O'Shea - he doesn't seem to do much actual coaching at Quins and is more a Director of Rugby type. Jackman and Prendergast had a great first half of the Top14 with Grenoble, but not so great a second half. Don't think he would come, but Baxter has done an incredible job with very little resources at Exeter. Out of left field, how about Eddie O'S - dealing with Blanco in the French division with Biarritz, and I still think he was badly treated by the IRFU

[bilco]

To me his biggest failing was that he didnt make the players more responsible,....

Not the crash-ball, barge it up the middle, kick it away/behind tactics with no finesse - Turning a talented backline into a shadow of its former self ?

[joooooe]

Out of left field, how about Eddie O'S - dealing with Blanco in the French division with Biarritz, and I still think he was badly treated by the IRFU

I'd be very supportive of O'Sullivan getting the job. His Ireland teams played with ambition and organisation and even listening to him on Against the Head you can see how much he still wants to be involved in the game. He is at 25/1 with Paddy Power, so I presume he's under contract for next season.

[simonokeeffe]

To me his biggest failing was that he didnt make the players more responsible,....

Not the crash-ball, barge it up the middle, kick it away/behind tactics with no finesse - Turning a talented backline into a shadow of its former self ?

the 2 feed into each other
players dont execute certain tactics well you change them or the tactics; have to be able to say certain players dont fit certain tactics

season tickets at over 10k, be interesting to see if theres a surge now

Now though the guys filling in during the world cup might be a bit more confident about keeping their places/being rewarded

[molloyjh]

I feel for MOC, never nice for someone to lose their job and it's even worse when it's public knowledge, he's moved the family over, and had a lot of abuse coming his way etc. I'm not saying he did a good job but aside from the big black mark that was missing out on the top 4 of the league his record was pretty good and I hope he gets a decent job as a result. By all accounts he really is a very nice fella and must have done a good job at Leicester, I would advise him not to go for a head coach role gain though, at least not straight away. With that said, hopefully he'll have learned a lot too and bounce back. I wish him all the best and thank him for his hard work and a league title.

I'm glad that someone feels for him. A lot of the abuse was way over the top and I hope it did not contribute to his decision.

The wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not a hanging offence and he seemed like a nice bloke. I wish him well.

Perhaps in future people could channel their passion in a more positive (or at least less negative) way.

I'd have been a big critic but I firmly agree with that boded line. It was a bad fit, and these things happen. It's in the past now so no need to dwell on it any further. I have no issue with the guy on a personal level so from that perspective I wish him all the best at Queensland (or wherever he ends up).

[Peg Leg]

Happy with the decision and happy with the length of time afforded to him to put his stamp on the team. Good luck in the next role Matt.

[fourthirtythree]

It had to happen, the team looked lost out there. Leinster became quite trying to watch.

I felt really sorry for him last year as I know he was under huge pressure yet actually delivered. I also think that like Gopperth when moved from a situation that had grown gradually toxic he will be reborn and I hope he gets the opportunity to show the attacking verve and license to play that he wants to. Both of them actually.

But it did have to happen. It was a f%~ked company situation.