O’Connor: I’ve no grudge against Leinster
Despite a rough ride at Leinster, O’Connor has no regrets at all
MATT O’CONNOR has insisted he isn’t on a revenge mission in his first match back in Ireland since his 2015 sacking from Leinster. The Australian is now in charge at Leicester, who are due to face Munster in a Saturday night Champions Cup showdown in Limerick. However, O’Connor claims he will travel to Ireland without grievance, saying he holds no grudges over his unceremonious dumping. The 2014 Pro12 title winner — who linked up with the Super Rugby Reds in 2016 before rejoining Leicester last March — had publicly criticised Ireland boss Joe Schmidt and IRFU chief David Nucifora over the level of availability of Test team players to Leinster. However, this criticism was rejected out of hand at an unprecedented SchmidtNucifora press conference four days after Leinster were narrowly beaten in extratime by Toulon in a Champions Cup semi-final. Twenty-eight days later, O’Connor was sacked, despite having a year still to run on the three-year deal he had signed in 2013 to leave Leicester and succeed Schmidt as Leinster boss. ‘It was disappointing but that is professional sport,’ said O’Connor, who confirmed it was ‘100 per cent’ an IRFU decision to remove him following a war of words that peaked in the week after the Toulon game. ‘I don’t have any grudges against Leinster and certainly I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with the playing staff and the coaching group in Dublin for
‘I speak to Leo a lot, speak to a handful of lads’
‘He’ll fall on his feet. He’s a good coach, well regarded. His agent had fingers in a few pies for him already. He won’t be out of work for too long’
FORMER Leinster boss Matt O’Connor certainly sounds as if he has fallen on his feet at Leicester. Good coaches always do. They find a way of keeping busy, of cannily improvising rather than just fading away following a bruising, highprofile sacking.
When the plug was dramatically pulled in Dublin in 2015 a year before his three-season contract was due to expire, the horizon wasn’t promising.
May was the wrong time of year to get the shepherd’s crook in the northern hemisphere, where most European clubs have long since completed staffing arrangements for the following season. And it was the wrong time for an immediate look-in in the south too, where Super Rugby is approaching the business end of its season.
Patience was needed amid the angst of family upheaval. O’Connor’s eldest child had been set to enter her Leaving Certifiback cate year that September in Dublin when Leinster’s professional game board, at the behest of the IRFU, kicked him out.
It resulted in the O’Connors returning lock, stock and barrel to Australia, where assistant’s roles with the struggling Reds in Brisbane and the Tonga national team kept dad ticking over before a familiar number from the English midlands eventually cropped up on his mobile phone.
Leicester Tigers, the club he helped from 2008 under Heyneke Meyer, and then Richard Cockerill, through to 2013, wanted the 46year-old back ASAP. He and his family jumped at a golden opportunity to return to a part of the world they had known and loved.
‘Most definitely, that was important. That was integral in the ease that they resettled back. They still have very good friends here to be fair and the understanding what Tigers is about in this part of the world was significantly easier than another move,’ he reflected.
It will be Saturday when he closes another circle, his first match back in Ireland since receiving his P45 from Leinster despite a league title victory and back-to- appearances in the Champions Cup knockout stages.
He had a dry-run return a few weeks ago. His old link with the Tongans brought him to Dublin for the first time since his May 2015 departure. They were in camp prior to facing the Barbarians in Limerick, the city to which O’Connor takes his Tigers in two days’ time.
He insists he isn’t on a revenge mission, that his aim isn’t to win solely so he can poke one in the eye of Joe Schmidt and David Nucifora, the IRFU power brokers whose disenchantment with O’Connor’s criticisms — not a fifth-place Pro12 league finish — forced Leinster’s hand two-and-ahalf years ago.
It was cataclysmic decision. Rather than have an established coach guide the province through an awkward World Cup season where so many stars were absent due to national duty, Leo Cullen was flung as a rookie into O’Connor shoes. He suffered; Leinster beaten-up and embarrassingly out of the running in Europe before Christmas.
However, bygones are bygones, insists the Australian, who was consoled by having widespread support in the Leinster squad at the time of his sacking.
‘It was hard for Leinster, it was hard. But they have steadied the ship now with Leo. I don’t know how Stu (Lancaster) is getting on, but they are doing alright to be fair.
‘I speak to Leo a lot, speak to a handful of lads. It was a great part of the world and we thoroughly enjoyed our association. Being in Dublin, I thought it was a fantastic city.’
Not so fantastic are O’Connor’s Limerick memories, which he describes as ‘s***’. His Leinster were beaten there twice, a 15-19 October 2013 loss followed 14 months later by a 13-28 St Stephen’s Day stuffing.
Now he goes with Tigers deeply wounded from their last visit, the humiliating 0-38 loss last December that was a final straw in a Cockerill reign complicated by his uneasy relationship with Aaron Mauger, who was also released before the arrival of O’Connor. The new coach felt good for having four years of experience elsewhere. ‘You’re always going to learn and be better if you are open to those changes in different environments. ‘I learned a hell of a lot as a coach, learned a hell of a lot as a person in the time at Leinster and the 12 months back in Super Rugby. ‘You’re always hoping you’re going to be that little bit better, that little bit more experienced, that little bit more knowledgeable around how you get the best out of people. Leicester are in a pretty good place, although these back-to-back games in Europe are often season-defining. We will probably know a little bit more in two weeks’ time.
‘I have always said I’m a massive fan of the game in the northern hemisphere. Champions Cup is without peer, the best club competition in the world, and from that perspective it’s always exciting to be back in the European mix.
‘And in the Premiership, you certainly must be on your mettle as a coach to manoeuvre yourself through 22 games that are very, very abrasive and confrontational.
‘That brings out the best in you as a coach, so the opportunity to come back and reshape the future and the direction of the club was a really exciting one.
‘There was probably a little bit of lack of clarity across the whole rugby picture, all the way from the coaching to the S&C, the recruitment. There was probably too many voices and a distinct lack of clarity that watered down so many of the very, very strong things that Tigers had stood for, for a long time.
‘It wasn’t necessarily rocket science. There was still a hell of a lot of character, a lot of quality people in the place that cared a lot about the environment. It was just trying to get a core of good people moving again in the right direction and we have demonstrated that in the last six months.’
Now is his chance to endorse that improvement back in Ireland.