Gaffney back with Leinster by demand

THE COACH everyone appeared to want to land in Donnybrook, Alan Gaffney, has finally arrived back via Munster, the Wallabies and Saracens.

Gaffney, whose name was on everyone's lips in recent months, has agreed terms with Leinster and joins head coach Michael Cheika and Kurt McQuilkin in the new-look backroom staff for next season.

The highly experienced and innovative backs coach takes over from David Knox, who heads back to Sydney at the end of the Magners League campaign.

McQuilkin, a former Leinster and Ireland centre, will ostensibly remain as defence coach. All three, Gaffney, McQuilkin and Cheika, have agreed two-year deals.

"We are delighted to get him over to Ireland. He is a very highly respected coach by everyone," said Leinster's CEO, Michael Dawson. "We're pleased that the package we were able to offer Alan was what he was expecting.

"We spoke to a wide selection of people about this and I think his appointment has been met with approval by the vast majority."

Gaffney's arrival should have a hugely positive effect on a back line that, though generally acknowledged as one of the most gifted in Europe, has functioned only sporadically this season.

As Dawson says, Gaffney is also highly regarded by the players, and several of the senior figures - Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy, Girvan Dempsey and Shane Horgan - had dealings with him when he coached in Leinster six years ago.

He is known as a hugely experienced coach with a knowledge of Northern Hemisphere rugby.

A former head at Randwick (1984-96) and New South Wales under-21s and assistant at Waratahs (1997-99), he first joined Leinster in 2000, and his time as assistant to Matt Williams (now Ulster coach) coincided with some success for the team; they won the Celtic League and reached the Heineken Cup quarter-finals in 2002.

After two years with Leinster, Gaffney moved to Munster and oversaw one of the most successful periods in their history. In his three seasons with the province, they won the Celtic League and Celtic Cup and were twice semi-finalists in the Heineken Cup.

In the summer of 2005, the then Australia coach, Eddie Jones, head-hunted Gaffney, who returned to Australia as backs coach to the Wallabies. Since 2005 he has coached Saracens in the English Premiership, but he had made it known he would like to return to Ireland with his wife.

Leinster said they beat off competition for the Australian's signature from several Northern and Southern Hemisphere clubs.

Interestingly, the careers of Cheika and Gaffney will have come full circle when the older coach arrives in the summer; he was Cheika's first coach at Randwick back in the early 1990s.

Gaffney's consultancy position with Saracens will allow him start at Leinster in early August.

There was some speculation that Cheika had reservations about committing himself to Leinster for more than three years as his contract was up at the end of this season. With Leinster out of the Heineken Cup, though leading the Magners League, the season has largely been a disappointment.

With the captain, O'Driscoll, and D'Arcy injured, whatever success Leinster can manage hangs on the team being able to stay ahead of their league rivals until the end.

Since Cheika arrived in the summer of 2005, he has overseen an overhaul of the Leinster squad; just 10 players now remain from the panel of that season.

In the last three years he has also introduced young talents like Luke Fitzgerald, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Jonathan Sexton.

McQuilkin, himself a former Leinster captain, joined the coaching set-up in the summer of 2007. After retiring from competitive rugby he coached the Ireland Under-19 team to three World Cups (including the victorious 1997 campaign) and the Ireland Under-21s to the World Cup finals and a Six Nations title. And he gave two seasons as coach to the Ireland sevens squad.

He also held coaching positions with the Ireland development side and Samoa King Country in the NPC for two seasons.

Until his appointment as defence coach with Leinster, McQuilkin had also coached the Leinster under-20s as well as Lansdowne and Greystones in the All-Ireland League.