BlueBlue wrote:Dave Cahill wrote:BlueBlue wrote:
Hiring a coach and then being disappointed about his starting date, who else made it?
The IRFU. They thought they could play chicken with the SRU (and maybe get a little revenge for the RWC vote) by leaking his appointment and get him released early. The SRU said "that'll be one extra large bag of cash please".
No, seeing as you and I don't actually know what happened, not being in the room. We have to speculate or rely on what we hear through other various channels. What I've read is that Ulster got approval for the deal from the IRFU, that's a rubber stamp, its Ulster who carry out Ulster business. After the fact, Ulster came back to the IRFU with the date problem. The IRFU were not at all happy, the relationship with the Scottish being what it is due to the world cup no vote, the Scots are the last people the IRFU would look for a favour or compromise from. And having to give them a bag of money would be stomach turning to the IRFU.
Ulster are responsible for Ulster. The idea that everyone is powerless and just being swept along on an IRFU wind is nonsense. The IRFU need the provinces, Ulster in this case to run their own affairs, the IRFU make sure such management is in line with national teams interest and the health of rugby in general.
Firstly the appointment was leaked by INM - it wasn't a problem until then and everything became public.
Secondly, we know with absolute 100% certainly that Ulster aren't responsible for Ulster. We know this because in the Ospreys playoff Ruan Pienaar wasn't paired with Paddy Jackson at halfback.
The IRFU have a Performance Director in place who is responsible for, amongst other things, "professional coach development and succession planning". This is the guy who insisted that Pat Lam's contract contained the exit clause, who gave us Rassie Erasmus (without telling the guy he was replacing), who let Rassie Erasmus go via the same exit clause as Pat Lam used, who didn't know that Leinster had engaged Graham Henry, hired and then fired Kieran Keane and of course pertinent to this discussion, the guy who gave us the Anscombe-Kiss-Doak-Kiss-Gibbes game of musical coaches in Ulster. In the four years he's held this role 10 provincial coaches have been either sacked or appointed (and in some cases subsequently sacked/removed). Thats a pretty extraordinary turnover.
So, there are two ways to look at it. If the above is accurate, or even mostly accurate, then he's an incompetent. If the above isn't accurate, or is mostly inaccurate even, then he allowed it to happen on his watch and is, therefore, incompetent.
So if theres another shambolic coaching appointment process, like we currently have in Ulster, then it is both walking and talking like a duck.
