Kearney confirmed as new manager of Irish team

THE IRFU yesterday confirmed that Michael Kearney will succeed Paul McNaughton as the new manager of the Irish team.

A one-time fullback and winger with Lansdowne, Kearney has previously served in the same role with the Leinster A and under-20 teams from 2004 and, since 2009, with the Ireland under-20 team, which won the Six Nations title in 2010 and which competed in two Junior World Championships.

Originally from Dunboyne in Co Meath and educated in Castleknock, Kearney won Leinster Senior League and Cup medals with Lansdowne in 1976 and 1981, and played for the Irish under-23 side, before a knee injury forced him to retire at the age of 24. Subsequently chairman of rugby for Lansdowne, he became the youngest president of the club in the 1999-2000 season.

A successful businessman, after a couple of years in Australia he returned home in 1994 with the Snap Printing master franchise, which has since become the largest print and design group in Ireland.

He continues to act as a board member to the business and is also a director of Home Instead Senior Care and CEX.

“My focus now is to get up to speed as soon as possible and give whatever support is necessary to Declan, the coaches and players as we head into the championship. The role is multifaceted, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

“The transition is somewhat easier having had the experience of working with the IRFU, who have an incredibly professional staff working around the team, who I am sure will help me adjust quickly.”

International Rugby Board chief executive Mike Miller is to step down after 10 years in which he oversaw three World Cup tournaments and the reinclusion of rugby into the Olympic Games, the board said on Friday.

Miller, who was also managing director of Rugby World Cup Ltd, will step down from both roles at the end of January.

The statement did not say who would replace him. The decision comes one month after Frenchman Bernard Lapasset was re-elected as board chairman.

Mike will be a hard act to follow. But with my newly reaffirmed four-year mandate, a revamped IRB executive committee, a soon to be refreshed Rugby World Cup board and a vibrant council and staff we have the tools in place to continue to drive the game forward,” Lapasset said in a statement.

Scotland have called up Edinburgh stand-off Phil Godman to their squad for the opening two matches of the Six Nations against England and Wales next month, the Scotland Rugby Union said yesterday.

The 29-year-old, who scored a last-gasp drop-goal to earn his side a dramatic Heineken Cup victory in Paris against Racing Metro 92 last weekend, has been drafted in to cover for Glasgow’s injured Ruaridh Jackson.

Godman, capped 23 times for Scotland, will join the squad for training at St Andrews next week.