Kirwan waits as McGeechan makes decision on Wasps job

FORMER Italy coach John Kirwan will have to wait for Ian McGeechan to turn down the job as Wasps’ director of rugby before finding out if he will succeed Warren Gatland.

Kirwan left the Italy coach's job yesterday and Zurich Premiership outfit Wasps want to hear from McGeechan, who has also been linked with Bath, before deciding whether to offer Kirwan a way back into the game.

Kirwan parted company with Italy earlier yesterday after a poor run of form saw them finish bottom of the RBS 6 Nations table.

Wasps team manager Nolan Miller tonight confirmed the club have offered the role of director of rugby to McGeechan.

Current incumbent Gatland is leaving the post with the Zurich Premiership club for a job in New Zealand with Waikato at the end of the season and McGeechan heads the field of candidates, which also includes former All Black Kirwan.

Kirwan left his role as Italy coach after a poor set of results and would be one of the favourites for the role should McGeechan turn Wasps down.

Meanwhile Connacht skipper Andrew Farley is confident his side can maintain their unbeaten record against Celtic League champions, Neath-Swansea Ospreys.

Connacht have won all three matches to date against the new title holders and ex-Swansea lock forward Farley wants that run to continue when they meet at the Sportsground tomorrow (4.45pm).

"They have had a superb season and I am very pleased for them having spent an enjoyable spell there. But we need this win more than them," said Farley.

"We need to finish above Cardiff to get into a play-off for a Heineken Cup spot and this is a huge match for us. We showed last week against Sale that we can match the best of them, but this is a different encounter.

"They have never beaten us and in a season when so much has gone brilliantly for Welsh rugby, that is another thing they will want to sort out."

And Connacht have another incentive to win as this will be Eric Elwood's final game at the Sportsground before the curtain comes down on his 17-year career with the side.

Leicester have continued to make plans for Neil Back's retirement by signing Leinster flanker Shane Jennings.

Back, 36, will take up a full-time Tigers coaching position next season, although he might end his playing career in style by touring New Zealand with the Lions this summer.

Jennings, 13 years Back's junior, has been identified as a player who could maintain Leicester's proud tradition of outstanding back-row forwards.

"We have done a lot of homework on Shane, both as an individual and within the Leinster team," said Pat Howard, who will succeed departing head coach John Wells as Tigers boss next term."

France flanker Serge Betsen has admitted his decision to stay with Biarritz rather than making a lucrative move to Leicester was one of the hardest choices he has ever made.

Betsen, 31, finally put an end to weeks of negotiations between himself and both clubs when he announced on Thursday that he had chosen to stay with the French outfit he joined 15 years ago.

The French international is now contracted to Biarritz until June 2008 the year he will retire from rugby after extending his contract by three years.

Leicester were offering him £12,400-a-month for two seasons and an experience abroad in a country where the level of rugby is arguably the highest in Europe.