Joe Molloy was joined by Cliona Foley and Mick O’Keefe on the Sunday Paper Review to reflect on Leinster’s Champions Cup final win over Racing 92 as the Irish outfit claimed their fourth European title.
Leo Cullen and senior coach Stuart Lancaster guided Leinster to a gritty victory in Bilbao on Saturday evening and have been touted as potential candidates to replace Ireland manager Joe Schmidt after the 2019 World Cup.
Lancaster has seen his reputation restored after enduring a miserable World Cup campaign with England in 2015 when the host nation failed to reach the knockout stages.
But O’Keefe, speaking on Off The Ball, believes the Leinster duo will face stern competition from a couple of familiar faces.
“Stuart Lancaster is getting the lion share of the credit. He seems to have been the catalyst for Leinster going to the next level,” O’Keefe said.
“But to be fair, I think it has to be a marriage of the two – where Cullen is the Leinster guy, born and bred, he’s as Leinster as you could probably get and that little bit of experience and coaching brilliance that Lancaster seems to have brought to the table.
“Ronan O’Gara is doing a PHD in rugby and he’s very much nailed his colours to the mast that he wants to coach. He’s had time in Racing and now he’s gone down to New Zealand.
“Paul O’Connell is dipping his toes in the water with the U-20s. What you might see – depending on the timing on whether Joe [Schmidt] walks after the World Cup – is O’Gara and O’Connell being on the coaching ticket.
“It really depends on how the whole thing is made up. There doesn’t seem to be one outstanding manager type who’s Irish at the moment. But there could be a combination of guys from that generation.”
Listen to the full Sunday Paper Review podcast below:
Written by James Hopper
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