‘Loyal, humble and honest’ McGahan stays cool in hot seat

AT ONE point in his first press conference as Munster rugby coach, Tony McGahan was asked to describe himself in three words.

A tricky enough ball to field, but the Australian showed good hands and returned the kicked ball with interest.

He responded with: “Loyal, humble and honest,” and first impressions certainly tended to bear that out.

Loyalty? Once the Munster position was available, he said he felt applying for it was the right thing to do.

Humility? No, he said, he didn’t think he was predestined for the job.

Honesty? Asked whether he’d been offered a job formally with Ireland, he said he hadn’t, but volunteered that there had been initial conversations in that direction.

Throughout the press conference the Australian was courteous but straightforward, mindful of the challenge but clearly confident he was up to the job ahead.

He’d been a little late for the scheduled start of the press conference, mind, but that was understandable. McGahan was being photographed outside the Maryborough House Hotel in Cork, and after a couple of pictures with Munster chief executive Garret Fitzgerald and team manager Shaun Payne, the snappers wanted a few shots of the new boss on his own.

It can be lonely at the top, of course, and the directions of the photographers brought that home. McGahan arrives in the hot seat with a formidable reputation as a hands-on coach on the training field, but being the head man in Munster has now become a significant position in the national sporting consciousness, and standing alone among the fronds and leaves of the hotel’s lush undergrowth reinforced the impression of various responsibilities being shouldered.

Still, if yesterday is anything to go by, projecting a public image shouldn’t be too much trouble for McGahan. Practically the first words out of his mouth when questioned yesterday were expectation and dealing with it, and given the adventures of the last three seasons, that was hardly surprising.

The fact that the new boss has been with Munster since February 2005 gives him a head start, of course, and he was immediately able to compare the first Heineken Cup win with last season’s, pointing out that if Munster had played last season the way they played in 2005-6, they wouldn’t have picked up that second trophy.

MUNSTER’S status as European royalty was evident in other, more oblique ways. When chief executive Fitzgerald was asked about expressions of interest in the position of Munster forwards coach, for instance, he referred to the quality of candidates, mentioning that at least one had coached at Lions standard and others had been national head coaches at Rugby World Cups.

There was a time when that would have been the most remarkable admission at the press conference, and one likely to have hacks ducking out to phone their editors immediately. Yesterday it was accepted with barely a nod, which is understandable.

After all, if a team like Leicester can hire someone like Marcello Loffreda, whose Argentina side were one of the success stories of the last World Cup, and let him go after one season, then it’s hardly surprising that Fitzgerald’s desk was groaning under the weight of 30 or so CVs that sparkled with achievement.

For further proof, when McGahan was asked about the search for another back row player, the new man said frankly that, that search was being conducted on a worldwide basis. There was no bravado or posturing in his comments: it was plain speaking, a matter of fact if the heroics of the past are to be replicated in the future.

And measuring up to the heroics of the past, the wins which have made Munster a target destination for coaches and players all over the world, is McGahan’s biggest challenge.

Yesterday he showed he was aware of that. If his players don’t know he probably won’t be long telling them.

“We make things happen,” he said at one stage about his team. Usually when a coach says that you wait for the second shoe to drop, and for the speaker to add “Nobody else.”

McGahan didn’t yesterday. He didn’t have to.

Loyal, humble and honest looks a fair description.