Search for successor begins

Leinster coaching vacancy: As Matt Williams was being unveiled as Ian McGeechan's successor to the Scottish media in Durban, where Scotland will play the Springboks on Saturday, Leinster officials were yesterday beginning the process of finding a replacement for the Australian. In their eagerness to fill the vacancy within eight weeks, they intend to advertise the job by the weekend. Gerry Thornley  reports

More light was shed on the mechanics of Williams's departure from Leinster and his confirmation as prospective Scottish coach in Durban, where Jim Telfer revealed that the leading candidates for the vacancy and the shortlist of three, which included Williams and Ulster coach Alan Solomons, had all applied for the vacancy.

Not that Williams should be criticised for applying for a job as an international coach, nor was it made clear how much he was encouraged to apply for it. More pertinently, Williams implied that he had applied for the Scottish post after Leinster's defeat to Perpignan in the European Cup semi-finals over five weeks ago, and that he had left with the blessings of both Leinster and the IRFU.

"After we finished the Heineken Cup I spoke to Jim (Telfer) and that's where we started," said Williams in Durban. "When I spoke to Jim and Ian (McGeechan) initially, I made it clear that Leinster and the IRFU had been fantastic to me and I wouldn't be walking out on them mid-season. I had put too much of myself into that team.

"We were ranked 36th in Europe and we're now ranked third. We've won a lot of trophies," he added, in reference to a Celtic League triumph and two interpro titles, "and broken a lot of records for Leinster. I made it clear to the Leinster and Irish CEOs that I had to have their blessing to go for the job and therefore it had to be done early. To be fair to Leinster, I had to resign the other day."

All of this would suggest that Williams's departure wasn't such a bolt from the blue for Leinster and the IRFU.

With McGeechan now stepping aside and taking over from Telfer as director of rugby until after the World Cup, Williams will thus become part of the SRU payroll next month as he's eased into a four-year contract which would take him up to the 2007 World Cup.

The kingmakers in the appointment of the 43-year-old Williams were undoubtedly Telfer and McGeechan. Significantly, both became Scottish coach in their early 40s.

Before returning to Ireland tomorrow, Williams said the Scotland post was "one of the few jobs" for which he would have left Leinster, adding he was "honoured to coach one of the great sides of world rugby" and "humbled" to "follow in the footsteps of Jim and Ian" .

Who'll follow in the footsteps of Williams is the question which will vex the minds of a combined Leinster/IRFU think-tank which is likely to comprise Leinster chief executive Mick Dawson, IRFU director of rugby Eddie Wigglesworth, the chairman of Leinster's management committee, John Hussey, and one or two more. After sifting through the applications, and perhaps inviting one or two more, they'll draw up a shortlist, conduct interviews and make their decision, ideally in time for Leinster's return to pre-season training from mid-July.

Coming within a year of the departure of Williams's initial assistant, Alan Gaffney, to Munster, the latest coaching upheaval in the province is unsettling and far from ideal. No less than Gaffney, Williams will be missed, especially by the frontline players whose respect for him as a coach remains strong.

"He is a fantastic coach and Scotland are very lucky to have him," said Denis Hickie yesterday. "No one should harbour any bitterness toward him for taking up the Scottish offer and I don't think anybody will. That is the way rugby works and, as with players, coaches have to pursue their own goals as well.

"He's done a lot for this team and done a lot for me personally. If you analyse all the players from the time he arrived until the time he left, he made us all better players. In the wider Leinster perspective, we were a team of occasional performers and he helped transform us into a team that won all the time at home to a team which more often than not won away from home."