Carnegie swoop for ex-Pirates boss Stirling

FORMER Cornish Pirates boss Chris Stirling is set to return to the UK with Yorkshire Carnegie in a High Performance role.

The signing of Stirling on a two-year deal is quite a coup for Carnegie, considering the Kiwi’s standing and popularity in the game.

He spent three successful seasons at the Cornish Pirates, helping the Duchy outfit reach back-to-back Championship finals as well as winning the inaugural B&I Cup, before returning to his native New Zealand to head up the NZRU’s talent identification programme at the end of the 2011/12 season.

Many of the players that played under Stirling at Pirates went on to become established Premiership players such as Dave Ward and Matt Hopper (Harlequins), Rob Cook (Gloucester) and Blair Cowan (London Irish).

Since 2013, he has been working in Super Rugby as General Manager of High Performance at the Hurricanes but the chance to work in England again has always appealed to Stirling.

Stirling was reportedly on a three-man shortlist to become DoR of Worcester but lost out in the end to Alan Solomons.

He is due to visit Headingley in an observational capacity in mid-March ahead of taking up his post full-time in the summer.

Carnegie have offered head coach Jimmy Lowes and forwards coach Steve Boden new one-year deals as reward for taking the club to third in the table heading into today’s clash with the Pirates with such a thinly-stretched squad.

With no new signings announced and leading prop Marc Thomas and lock Ben West off to join the recently-departed Ollie Stedman at Ealing, it remains to be seen what playing resources Stirling will have at his disposal.

Converted tight-head Charlie Beech is also thought to be on his way out of the club, to Coventry, to join former Carnegie stalwart Phil Nilsen.