Rookie coach relishing return after fine start
AFTER an apprenticeship of sorts under Grand Slam-winning Wales coach Mike Ruddock, Mark McHugh has hit the ground running since being appointed Lansdowne head coach back in January.
Mark took up a small coaching role with Trinity after returning from France in 2012, and 18 months on Ruddock - who had offered the Drogheda native his first playing contract 15 years earlier - brought him to Lansdowne as backs coach.
There he stayed until last December when Ruddock departed on what was meant to be a short-term move to Ospreys. Suddenly Mark was thrust into the spotlight, having been appointed interim head coach, but within weeks he’d been offered and accepted the role on a permanent basis.
It’s fair to say that the 41-yearold has transformed the AIL Division 1A side’s fortunes, leading them to six league wins from seven before the coronavirus lockdown brought the season to a shuddering halt.
Taking up the story, he said: ‘I suppose Mike left on a sabbatical and they asked me would I do the job on an interim basis, but when it became clear he was going to remain in Wales for the forseeable future the club had a decision to make.
‘They asked me to become the permanent head coach, which comes with a lot of expectation, and I was more than happy to take the job.
‘Before I took the role, we were competitive and but for the a bounce of the ball here or there we could have won the games we lost. When I took over, one of the things I tried to instil in the guys was a sense of belief that they were good enough to compete.
‘We went back to basics a bit and tried to focus on being good at the things we knew we were good at. Back to playing rugby in the right areas of the pitch and looking to build pressure on the opposition, rather than play massively high-risk rugby where you can put pressure on yourselves with one mistake.
‘After that the bounce of the ball started to go with us and we’ve scored from the last play of the game at least four times from those six wins. It shows we keep fighting until the bitter end and that’s something we maybe lacked a bit before I took over.
‘Hopefully we can enjoy some success.’
While Mark has a full-time job outside of rugby as well as the challenges of family life with his wife and three children, life in charge of Lansdowne has made him realise that a return to professional rugby - this time in a coaching capacity - might be possible one day.
‘It could be worse,’ he said, reflecting on life with Covid-19 restrictions in force.
‘I’m working remotely from home the same as 90% of other people, and having a home office at the kitchen table has its own challenges when you have three kids, but it’s an opportunity to spend more time with them, which you don’t get very often.
‘I suppose being in Malahide means we’re close to both sets of parents and a support network, and one of the things we realised about France was that we were so far away from having support.
‘Opportunities are very few and far between, but long-term I’d love to coach full-time and test myself at a professional level if the right opportunity came along.
‘But for now I’m just dying to get back going again [with Lansdowne]. It’s full-on with recruitment and planning for next season and the structure we’re going to adopt, and making sure we have the right players in to be challenging and hopefully winning silverware.
‘I’m pretty hopeful we will see rugby this side of Christmas. Whether that will be provincial teams, provincial clubs or cup competitions, leading into the All-Ireland League, I just don’t know.’