Cool head with a free spirit

Gerry Thornley talks to the former Wallaby star whose job it is to fill Matt Williams's shoes

Gary Ella inherits a talented squad rightly regarded as one of the strongest in Europe. A plum job, the theory goes, one of the best around.

In some respects, however, it's arguably more favourable for a coach to take over a team in the doldrums. That way, at least, the only way is up.

On foot of Ella's appointment, Mick Dawson, the Leinster chief executive, spoke of last season's "disappointment" and of Leinster being competitive in both the Celtic League and the Heineken European Cup this coming season.

Yet in World Cup year Ella is not likely to see his full squad in harness until after his frontliners have been through a World Cup and shortly before the start of the Heineken Cup in November, which will make their Celtic League campaign every bit as difficult. And lest we forget, Leinster were competitive enough in Europe last season to reach the semi-finals. Top that?

"The next couple of months is going to be the challenge. It's when we play without the Irish internationals, and how we perform during that period will have a large bearing on whether we are successful or not," admits Ella.

"I think we've got a very fast backline. I think the side is extremely mobile. I've been impressed with the way they've trained mobility-wise on the field. They're eager to learn too. We've spoken about a couple of new game structures to the players and they've greeted those with a lot of enthusiasm and asked a lot of questions."

Disillusioned some of the fringe players may have been by the end of Matt Williams's reign, yet most of the frontliners regarded Williams as either the best coach or one of the best coaches they'd ever worked with. The new man had to be able to teach some of the country's best players some new tricks, and at least they'll be impressed enough with Ella's CV.

Ella has been coaching since 1990, cutting his teeth through the club scene with Randwick and Manly as well as the Australian under-19s and A squad, while working in the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee.

In his playing days the former Wallaby was coached by Alan Gaffney, whom he regards as a good friend, at Randwick, while he coached with Williams at New South Wales in 1996.

He's been a full-time assistant to Bob Dwyer at the New South Wales Waratahs for the last three years and cites Dwyer as his biggest influence, though like his twin brothers, Mark and Glen, he is from the free-thinking and innovative-play school of the 1980s.

"I like to think we can play attacking football and to do that we've got to develop players' individual skills, and then you take away a lot of the risk. I find that people say when you're moving the ball across the backline it's a high risk, but it's just catching and passing. The angles that you run and the decisions that you make are the hardest part of it, and that's what we're working on with some of the players. Just changing their angles of running, support lines. Once you start getting those in place then you can really play an attacking game because you can do it with confidence."

He admits his generation of Wallabies included many kindred spirits, aside from Glen and Mark, such as Lloyd Walker, Dave Ramsey.

"We came from an era where we had a set way that we wanted to play. We wanted to be attacking all the time. We made up a lot of moves as we went along. A lot of people say it was instinctive, but at the same time we always had a look at what the opposition were doing in defence. And we always planned moves to beat a certain type of defence, or how we'd take a certain individual on. So there was always a lot of planning.

"People say the Ellas used to play with this instinctive flair, but a lot of thought went into it. We were a bit blasé about it because we didn't want to give too much away, basically."

He holds no bitterness toward New South Wales or his good friend Ewan McKenzie, who was promoted to full-time coach in succession to Dwyer, but he believed the time was right to become a head coach when he applied for the Leinster job.

"For me to progress, now is the time to do it. The Leinster job was available. Dublin is obviously a great city, it's a very good side who play an attacking game, so I thought it was the ideal team to join up with."

He's clearly started his homework on what he's inherited, and the Leinster players will be encouraged by the early noises. Aside from the continuity Willie Anderson provides, Ella talks of more player involvement in the decision making, of developing individual skills, generating further confidence in their own ability and, perhaps most significantly, "the biggest thing that we need to do is make sure there's harmony within not just the 22 but the whole 35 players who are under contract."

Early days. And he has a hard act to follow. But the Leinster players will like what they know about the new man, and also what they see and hear.