Management is a critical element in all forms of business and sport. Success is most often attributed to the individual that heads an organisation and perceived failures often also become bound up in personal blame.
So it has been now with Matt O’Connor who was advised on Wednesday that his reign as Head Coach at Leinster was to end with immediate effect, one year ahead of schedule.
Players and staff were advised of the decision at a meeting yesterday morning and both sides issued statements to the effect that the parting was mutual.
In many ways sport is a heightened microcosm for what happens in the business world. A manager makes the best decisions with the circumstances at their disposal. They then rely on communication to get their message and intentions across, determination from the team of people they have chosen to help implement the plan, and as always a bit of luck.
O’Connor’s fate was sealed not by the near failure to make a Champions’ Cup final but by a poor overall performance in the Guinness PRO12. Not being involved in this weekend’s Play-offs while Munster and Ulster are is a tough pill for Leinster fans to swallow and while loyalty remains high the level of season ticket sales is behind what might have been expected in previous years.
Of course there are swings in momentum in every sporting organisation and nobody can expect to win everything, all the time. Except of course the fans.
At a time when Leinster are embarking on a programme with the RDS to develop their main home ground, and with marquee players Jonathan Sexton and Ica Nacewa coming back into the fold, there needs to be a sense of the possible, of a return to the biggest days of Club Rugby and of making the most of a surge in interest fostered by Ireland’s success and a future potential hosting of the Rugby World Cup.
That Ireland’s success is being laid at the door of former Leinster coach Joe Schmidt will have made Matt O’Connor’s life even more uncomfortable in recent months.
His criticism of the system where players are held back for Ireland first at key times was ill judged and Schmidt’s summing up of this year as opposed to last will have chilled any hopes he realistically had of extending his contract unopposed.
“Two years ago through the Six Nations period Leinster got 18 out of 20 available points. Last year they got 19 out of 20 available points. This year they got nine out of 20 available points,” said Schmidt and that in many ways was it for O’Connor.
Leinster’s main sponsor Bank of Ireland has had its own issues with calls for management to step down throughout the past near decade of financial turbulence. They will understand the dynamics that exist between shareholders or fans and performance.
It’s a shame from a human perspective that O’Connor’s family will now likely have to leave Ireland in search of a new role but again that’s what happens in real life.
Now the search moves on for a successor. Each of the last three appointed by Leinster have been from outside Ireland and ex Australia coach Robbie Deans is the bookmakers favourite to continue that trend after Leo Cullen holds the fort in the interim.
