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McLaughlin leaving Ulster?

If it's not broken why fix it?? Be a shame to see him go. I trained with him back in my club days and he was something else, real good at developing the core skills.

But Humph and Logan have not failed us yet. The names being thrown around include, Michael Chieka, Matt Sexton and even John Kirwan. If we could get Kirwan then I would be open to the possibility of a new coach.
 
Plumtree's name has also been mentioned a lot. Intrigued as to what you see in Kirwan Jayatron, he's the name I'd be least certain about.

Certainly wouldn't move him if he wanted the job, but there's also the possibility he just doesn't want it anymore.
 
Confirmed on Radio Ulster: Contracts finish this season and it's 'up for review'. It'd be a toss up between Kirwan and Chieka for me, though I'd rather for McLaughlin to remain; he has brought through all the young players, why not see what he can do with them. Just look at the success he had with RBAI (I know it schools rugby is nothing compared to Ulster rugby, but the priorities are similar).
 
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Bit of a shock decision really, I thought he had done VERY well with Ulster. I was told that he decided to leave himself, but then someone told me it was for speaking out against IRFU policy; so I decided that both must have been bulls**t!
 
With the new IRFU policy of NIQ players it would make sense to have a coach who can find and bring through young Irish players; McLaughlin has done this and has been very successful.
 
Gavin said:
With the new IRFU policy of NIQ players it would make sense to have a coach who can find and bring through young Irish players; McLaughlin has done this and has been very successful.
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McLaughlin may have been bringing them through, but its the academy coaches/Humphreys doing the spotting (has been suggested the academy coaches might be doing a better job of that and all).

Apparently both O'Shea and McCall have been mentioned as possibles too. So too has O'Sullivan which haunts my nightmares. Who sodding knows by now...
 
Has McLaughlin been a victim of his own success? I suspect there are some officials in the Ulster Rugby Union who feel that he has brought them as far as he can and they want a high profile coach to bring them to the next step which is winning the Heineken Cup.
 
If Ulster already have a better coach lined up, I see no problem with showing McLaughlin the door. If they're merely dispensing with his services and hoping that somebody better is available, this is a stupid move. I suspect it's the former since off the field they've done almost everything right over the last two seasons.

Based on his spell as Italy coach, I don't think John Kirwan is any better than Brian McLaughlin.
 
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...311049851.html

Due south: Ulster look to southern hemisphere

GERRY THORNLEY

ULSTER are likely to bring in a successor to Brian McLaughlin from the southern hemisphere, thereby ruling out several Irish candidates such as Eddie O'Sullivan, Mark McCall and Jeremy Davidson.

The province are expected to make an announcement sooner in this Six Nations window rather than later.

It is understood that the Ulster hierarchy is keen to follow Leinster's lead by identifying a Joe Schmidt- type replacement for McLaughlin, who formally severed his ties as a teacher with Belfast Institute at the end of last season after completing his leave of absence by signing a one-year extension. McLaughlin will remain within the Ulster set-up after completing his three years at the helm at the end of this season, most probably as a coach in the province's expanded academy along with manager Gary Longwell, and Neil Doak and Niall Malone.

Although Ulster are looking to the southern hemisphere, they are unlikely to hire a high-profile name such as John Kirwan, who had stints as coach to Italy and Japan, while the likes of Wayne Smith is probably out of their range.
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Would do me, providing the new guy can do a Schmidt-style job. McLaughlin in the academy is an excellent job.
 
Easier said than done surely? I don't know if Ulster are going to be able to find a better coach. Under McLaughlin they've managed to improve steadily for the last 3 seasons, picking up from that low they suffered around 2007. That's said, it's hard to know how much of that is down to him and how much was down to David Humphreys and co.

Either way, none of the coaches mentioned by Thornley would fill me with confidence.
 
Feicarsinn said:
Easier said than done surely? I don't know if Ulster are going to be able to find a better coach. Under McLaughlin they've managed to improve steadily for the last 3 seasons, picking up from that low they suffered around 2007. That's said, it's hard to know how much of that is down to him and how much was down to David Humphreys and co.

Either way, none of the coaches mentioned by Thornley would fill me with confidence.
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Easier said than done it is. Although I'll point out Thornley hasn't named anyone as a Ulster target in that article, more ruled a lot of guys out.

That said, a lot of it is Humphreys' work - not at the training paddock, but in terms of the players he's getting in. Right now, our first XV (with one glaring exception) is the equal of anyone in Europe's, more or less. A lot of that is to do with 5 top NIQs, two of whom are apparently doing a lot of the work at Newforge anyway at the moment - Muller and Terblanche. And the other coaches deserve credit... ok, Doak, Muller and Terblanche! It isn't a one man band by any means, and McLaughlin certainly isn't irreplaceable.

If Humphreys pulls off a coach signing to follow the rest of his overseas recruitment, we'll be laughing.
 
Hmmm, I dunno.

If you'd offered getting out of the HEC groups 2 years in a row 3/4 years ago...


To me it smacks of getting a wee bit ahead of ourselves. We are still light years away from being as strong as Leinster (who are the benchmark).
 
Equally, if 3 or 4 years ago you were told Ulster would have a starting XV like they have now, you'd expect them to make the last 8 in Europe 2 years running.

There has been some talk that McLaughlin wants a lesser role at Ulster and will be kept on in some form with responsibility for younger players. In my opinion, his greatest accomplishment as Ulster coach has been the way he's integrated promising youngsters into the setup. He could really excell in an academy director role.

If he is to leave Ulster rugby altogether, I think he'd walk into a good job in England should one become available.
 
Excellent. There's been some real worries about the Academy and the standard of the coaching down there - I'll admit that seems bizarre to me give some of the prospects we've turned out recently - but Sir has the record for it and then some.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/16932699

Press conference about the decision.

Humphrey's
for the long term benefit of the players and Ulster rugby in general Brian's appointment in the academy is an integral part of that
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McLaughlin looked slightly angry during the conference and mentioned his new post as a safety net as well as saying that he was 'disappointed' a lot.

Either way he will be one of the few Ulster coaches to have such success and will finish on a high whatever the results are.
 
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