Gaffney is new director of rugby at Saracens

English Premiership: Saracens have appointed former Munster coach Alan Gaffney as their new director of rugby, in succession to Steve Diamond, who was sacked earlier in the season. The English club are currently under the guidance of the former Australian coach Eddie Jones and ex-Ireland defensive coach Mike Ford until the end of the season.

Gaffney (58) worked as an assistant to Jones with the Wallabies after leaving Munster and was recommended by his former boss for this post.

He admitted: "I'm absolutely delighted. I'd always wanted to coach in the English Premiership. This is a great opportunity for me. I'm really looking forward to getting involved.

"I've already met with a lot of the guys around the training centre and they seem a good bunch of people who I look forward to getting to know better over the next few weeks. I've followed the Premiership from Ireland quite extensively and also came up against a number of English teams during my time with Munster and Leinster.

"I know that this is a very difficult competition to play in - especially when combined with the Powergen Cup and the Heineken Cup.

"It puts strong demands on everyone involved and one of the other big factors in this role is managing that whole process.

"In this day and age, it doesn't matter so much where your rugby expertise lies, you've got to be able to manage players and make sure you are getting the optimum performance week in, week out."

Jones and Ford will continue to take charge of team affairs for the remaining three Guinness Premiership matches.

Gaffney's role as director of rugby won't impinge on Ford, who'll continue to act as head coach. Another familiar face at the club for the popular Australian is the former Ireland hooker Shane Byrne, with whom Gaffney worked at Leinster.

Saracens chief executive Mark Sinderberry said: "We're delighted that Alan has agreed to join us.

"He's someone with more than 20 years' coaching experience at the highest level and his knowledge of Northern Hemisphere rugby made him the ideal candidate for the role.

"When we began the recruitment process we identified a lack of specialist coaching within the club as being significant in our lack of progress over recent years. As a result, Alan will head up an enlarged coaching team, which will be finalised over the coming weeks."

Gaffney's coaching career began at Sydney club Randwick in 1984 and took him to Leinster and the New South Wales Waratahs before he joined Munster as head coach in 2002. He guided them to two semi-finals in the European Cup, winning the Celtic League and Cup before joining the Wallaby set-up.

One of his former charges, Munster and Ireland outhalf Ronan O'Gara, gave him the following endorsement: "He is a fine coach, and his style is definitely not 10-man rugby. He likes to see an attacking brand of rugby, and we played some of our greatest rugby under him.

"He will make a great difference to Saracens - they have got themselves a fantastic coach."