McGahan set to leave at the end of the season

First topic message reminder :

Apparently Tony is off back to Aus at the end of the season, to the national setup I believe from reports. Been at Munster since 05, and head coach since 08.

Mixed feelings about this but would like to see Axel take over with possibly Bradley as backs coach. These would be my preferences.

geoff998rugby wrote:Stag if the name I am hearing is correct Munster will not be interviewing him and he would choose Ulster over Munster anyway.

Must be Ian Paisley so....

Mark McCall returns to Ulster!

As far as I know Laulala isn't a 12 stag.

Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Rory - I wasnt sure I got the impression he could play either. I know he is the creative one at Blues with Roberts as the strike runner.

Dreamer - I'd be happy with Ruddock.

Laulala usually plays 13, with one of Evans, Roberts or Hewitt playing 12

Thanks Shoveylovey

Plesur.

Warning about him though, he can be very hit and miss and can often look quite disinterested. Am sure the Munster set up should fix all that though.

rugbydreamer wrote:Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Why? Failed everywhere he went and his son just turned down an offer to play for Munster.

red_stag wrote:Mark McCall returns to Ulster!

Matt Sexton.

Some players - Nick Williams, Tony Buckley etc have laziness bred into them and no amount of Munsteritis will cure that. I hope it isnt the case with Mr Laulala.

Sin é wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Why? Failed everywhere he went and his son just turned down an offer to play for Munster.

He won a grand slam though.

Sin é wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Why? Failed everywhere he went and his son just turned down an offer to play for Munster.

Being a professional game, I doubt that would have any bearing. I doubt if you could call a Grand Slam winning coach a complete failure either

Mickado wrote:

Sin é wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Why? Failed everywhere he went and his son just turned down an offer to play for Munster.

He won a grand slam though.

Yes. But he couldn't control the Welsh dressing room and he announced that he was leaving the job in the middle of the 6Ns Course the WRU just sent him packing.

Sin é wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Why? Failed everywhere he went and his son just turned down an offer to play for Munster.

Did he?

He won multiple Welsh Leagues as a coach with Swansea. The Dragons team he coached were a million miles away from the rubbish we see in Newport nowadays and he delivered a Grand Slam. Its a fairly good CV.

Eddie O'Sullivan still counts triple crowns as trophies. Conor O'Shea has only ever won a Powergen Cup. Anthony Foleys charges lost the British and Irish Cup final. Michael Bradley won with Cork Con but has no other trophies.

Notch wrote:

Sin é wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Why? Failed everywhere he went and his son just turned down an offer to play for Munster.

Being a professional game, I doubt that would have any bearing. I doubt if you could call a Grand Slam winning coach a complete failure either

If Ruddock senior rated Munster, he would have been encouraging his son to go there.

Of course they could be getting their own back - from reports, Munster was Ruddock Junior's preferred Irish option (Munster had just won the Heineken Cup for the 2nd time in 2008 when he was moving to Ireland from Wales). Apparently Munster were not prepared to take on his older brother Ciaran as part of the deal.

Yah roysh!

Sine, I think this is more to do with the fact Rhys said no to joining Munster than with him being a "failure everywhere he went" which is clearly wrong.

I can understand Ruddocks thinking. Leinster are a better team at the moment. He does look like he has a chance to break into the team there - he played in the Heinkene Cup alongside Heaslip and O'Brien. Why leave and be in a similar situation when Coughlan, Leamy, Wallace, O'Mahony are at Munster.

Its nothing to do with rating or not rating a team.

I'll be honest Sin, that sounds like the fantasy of your deranged mind.

red_stag wrote:

Sin é wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:Coach wise I'm going along with a couple of other posters, If he wants it, I reckon Mike Ruddock would be a great shout for Munster.

Why? Failed everywhere he went and his son just turned down an offer to play for Munster.

Did he?

He won multiple Welsh Leagues as a coach with Swansea. The Dragons team he coached were a million miles away from the rubbish we see in Newport nowadays and he delivered a Grand Slam. Its a fairly good CV.

Eddie O'Sullivan still counts triple crowns as trophies. Conor O'Shea has only ever won a Powergen Cup. Anthony Foleys charges lost the British and Irish Cup final. Michael Bradley won with Cork Con but has no other trophies.

Getting sacked by the Welsh WRU is a large blot on your copybook. And you'd need to be pretty poor to get relegated in the Aviva Premiership.

Wales had a winning team and it just disintegrated completely. He couldn't hold them together.

Sin - are you actually being serious?

Notch wrote:I'll be honest Sin, that sounds like the fantasy of your deranged mind.

Why deranged Notch? He was a 17/18 year old kid. He was playing U20s with Peter O'Mahoney & Co. Leinster kept coming up short. Munster were the No. 1 club in Europe. And he wanted to move to Ireland. Mick Ruddock's mother is from Clare, so he would have had family in the area.

Amazing that Ciaran Ruddock is still in the Leinster Academy although he is older than Rhys and Leinster are short of locks.

aaah so it's because the son chose Leinster over Munster that you don't want the father to coach. It all becomes clear....

rugbydreamer wrote:Sin - are you actually being serious?

I'm also watching the Ireland U20s and I think they are badly coached (notwithstanding a very lucky win in France).

Again Sine, to me you just sound bitter than he said no to joining Munster.

I thought the U20's looked very good against Wales actually. And they managed a win in France? Tis better than the senior team has managed to date (admittedly that could change in the following weeks). Seems like he's doing a good job there

Sin é wrote:

Notch wrote:I'll be honest Sin, that sounds like the fantasy of your deranged mind.

Why deranged Notch? He was a 17/18 year old kid. He was playing U20s with Peter O'Mahoney & Co. Leinster kept coming up short. Munster were the No. 1 club in Europe. And he wanted to move to Ireland. Mick Ruddock's mother is from Clare, so he would have had family in the area.

Amazing that Ciaran Ruddock is still in the Leinster Academy although he is older than Rhys and Leinster are short of locks.

What has Ciaran Ruddock got to do with anything?

rugbydreamer wrote:aaah so it's because the son chose Leinster over Munster that you don't want the father to coach. It all becomes clear....

No, not that, just that its an expression of his lack of confidence in Munster. Lets face it, he'd be a starter in Munster, but he won't be in Leinster.

(I admire Rhys for staying to fight it out in Leinster, tbh).

Of his son's lack of confidence? What's that got to do with Ruddock (Mike) being a coach at Munster?

red_stag wrote:Again Sine, to me you just sound bitter than he said no to joining Munster.

Well, I guess I'll have to live with the lack of your approval

rugbydreamer wrote:Of his son's lack of confidence? What's that got to do with Ruddock (Mike) being a coach at Munster?

Chances are that Rhys would be getting a bit of advice from his father about his rugby career and which club he should be playing for.

So your basing your opinion that Ruddock wouldn't be a good coach for Munster on the assumption that he may have advised Rhys not to play for Munster? Seriously?

rugbydreamer wrote:I thought the U20's looked very good against Wales actually. And they managed a win in France? Tis better than the senior team has managed to date (admittedly that could change in the following weeks). Seems like he's doing a good job there

You didn't watch the JWC then - or the 6Ns last year?

Here's the squad that Rhys captained in the U20 WC.

Denis Buckley Corinthians Connacht
Eoin Griffin Corinthians Connacht
Tiernan O'Halloran Galwegians Connacht
Andrew Conway Blackrock Leinster
John Cooney UCD Leinster
David Doyle UCD Leinster
Darren Hudson St. Mary's College Leinster
Brendan Macken Blackrock Leinster
Stewart Maguire Old Belvedere Leinster
Ben Marshall UCD Leinster
Jordi Murphy Blackrock Leinster
Robin O'Sullivan Bective Rangers Leinster
Jack O'Connell Lansdowne Leinster
Noel Reid UCD Leinster
Rhys Ruddock UCD Leinster
Dominic Ryan Lansdowne Leinster
Patrick Butler Shannon Munster
Bryan Cagney UCC Munster
Brian Hayes Cork Constitution Munster
David O'Callaghan UCC Munster
Simon Zebo Cork Constitution Munster.
Niall Annett Belfast Harlequins Ulster
Michael Heaney Belfast Harlequins Ulster
James McKinney Queen's University Ulster
Nevin Spence Ballynahinch Ulster

I only tend to get to see the Wales games in the JWC or U20's 6N's, Sin

rugbydreamer wrote:So your basing your opinion that Ruddock wouldn't be a good coach for Munster on the assumption that he may have advised Rhys not to play for Munster? Seriously?

Its a fairly demanding job - with huge expectations from players to sponsors to supporters. No place for anyone with any sort of doubts about the club.

Sin é wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:So your basing your opinion that Ruddock wouldn't be a good coach for Munster on the assumption that he may have advised Rhys not to play for Munster? Seriously?

Its a fairly demanding job - with huge expectations from players to sponsors to supporters. No place for anyone with any sort of doubts about the club.

You don't know he has doubts though Sin. You're just assuming he does. I find it rather baffling. Ruddock is a very good coach and could do v good things with Munster

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/news/newsid=2037006.html

Sin é wrote:

Notch wrote:I'll be honest Sin, that sounds like the fantasy of your deranged mind.

Why deranged Notch? He was a 17/18 year old kid. He was playing U20s with Peter O'Mahoney & Co. Leinster kept coming up short. Munster were the No. 1 club in Europe. And he wanted to move to Ireland. Mick Ruddock's mother is from Clare, so he would have had family in the area.

Amazing that Ciaran Ruddock is still in the Leinster Academy although he is older than Rhys and Leinster are short of locks.

You won't be told

Why not just play along?

Mickado wrote: Here's the squad that Rhys captained in the U20 WC.

Peter O'Mahony was U20s captain when he would have been deciding to come to Ireland:

Sin e's played a blinder again and caught half a dozen prize mackerals this afternoon.....

ha but rodders, are you sure it was intentional??

rugbydreamer wrote:I thought the U20's looked very good against Wales actually. And they managed a win in France? Tis better than the senior team has managed to date (admittedly that could change in the following weeks). Seems like he's doing a good job there

Both teams were very poor. The win in France was a bit lucky.

Notch wrote:

Sin é wrote:

Notch wrote:I'll be honest Sin, that sounds like the fantasy of your deranged mind.

Why deranged Notch? He was a 17/18 year old kid. He was playing U20s with Peter O'Mahoney & Co. Leinster kept coming up short. Munster were the No. 1 club in Europe. And he wanted to move to Ireland. Mick Ruddock's mother is from Clare, so he would have had family in the area.

Amazing that Ciaran Ruddock is still in the Leinster Academy although he is older than Rhys and Leinster are short of locks.

You won't be told

Why not just play along?

Ciaran Ruddock is 23 years old and still in the Leinster Academy. He has played 50 mins against Aironi this year to date (and thats for a team that has a lock crisis).

Maybe Ciaran just isn't good enough?

rugbydreamer wrote:ha but rodders, are you sure it was intentional??

The fishing or the bite? I've been on the end of the hook many times ........

roddersm wrote:Sin e's played a blinder again and caught half a dozen prize mackerals this afternoon.....

Want to be wummed Rodders ... how about ... Ruddock fancies the Ulster job. Why would he persist with a hooker as captain in the U20s who couldn't hit a cows bottom with a banjo, or an outhalf as captain who can't kick his points when presented with them.

Sin é wrote:

Mickado wrote: Here's the squad that Rhys captained in the U20 WC.

Peter O'Mahony was U20s captain when he would have been deciding to come to Ireland:

Do you not think that his dad coaching Leinster might have had an influence on his decision to join us?

I don't think Ciaran is a particularly good player Sin. Not as good as his brother anyway.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Maybe Ciaran just isn't good enough?

Your right. He isn't good enough. Wonder why he isn't released from Leinster like anyone else who isn't up to scratch