Geordan Murphy leaves the club!

[Cagey Tiger]

Blackett was helped by injuries calming down & benching Sopanga (really not sure what's going on there, he was ridiculously good in NZ)

And by taking over from Dai Young, who had a track record of producing serially under-performing teams going back to Cardiff RFC i.e. pre-regional rugby in Wales.

[westwinds31]

Interesting take by Haskell on the podcast, saying that although it's never nice when a club legend leaves, when a new head coach comes in, he normally brings his own coaches with him. If there are coaches left from the previous regime, it often leads to "whispering in corners" so it's sometimes for the best that there's a new broom.

I'm not sure where that leaves Mike Ford though.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Interesting take by Haskell on the podcast, saying that although it's never nice when a club legend leaves, when a new head coach comes in, he normally brings his own coaches with him. If there are coaches left from the previous regime, it often leads to "whispering in corners" so it's sometimes for the best that there's a new broom.

I'm not sure where that leaves Mike Ford though.

Lets not forget Steve was coached himself as a player by Mike Ford during his time as England defence coach, he may have already formed an opinion on him...

[Tiglon]

Tom Varndell:

He took over from Matty O'Connor and it was probably too early for him. I don't think Geordie will mind me saying this, but he hadn't been exposed to that. He is such a nice guy, he was a funny guy to play with, a great person to have around.

But when you become DOR, you automatically become the , because you're the one who has got to tell boys they are not playing. No player ever wants to be told they're not playing, every player thinks they should be the starting player. Geordie couldn't be everyone's friend, and that's a tough ask.

Because when you are a likeable guy then suddenly you've got to make that switch and demand the respect of the players, when you've been a player, or an assistant coach, or a skills coach. It's a tough one, it was unfair for Geordie to be thrown into that, in not only in a team that is under-performing at the time, but with very little experience to do that."

FWIW he also said:

He's an unbelievable skills coach, an unbelievable backs coach

Quoted from the Merc. I am not sure he is an unbelievable coach but I think that's where I see him. But the too nice to DoR rings true to me.

Same in all walks of life. It's always a risk to promote someone from being everyone's workmate to being their boss. It's very difficult for people to change their relationships with people so quickly.

[kk20gb30]

Andy Goode and Jim Hamilton on Geordan Murphy's departure :

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/hes-goin ... leicester/

[Noggs]

Interesting but I'm not sure it tells us anything new.

He was not made redundant as it was whether or not a new contract was issued after the existing contract came to an end.

It seem likely that his existing contract would have some 'performance' based aspects in terms of payment so this is probably what is under discussion with the men in wigs. It will all get sorted in time.

[DingDong]

As great a player as Goode was, his waffle and ramblings on the Pod rarely match his past playing standard. As for his match commentary, no real insights just describes literally what is happening like a football commentator, just as his comments about the Murphy departure are.