McGahan’s Aussie move confirmed

Munster director of coaching Tony McGahan’s appointment as Australia’s coaching co-ordinator has finally been confirmed by the Wallabies hierarchy.

Munster announced in February that the Queenslander would be leaving at the end of the season after four years in charge and McGahan himself outlined last month that his next role would be in Robbie Deans’ Wallabies set-up as the Australian Rugby Union’s coaching co-ordinator. The ARU made that official yesterday with McGahan set to begin work ahead of the Wallabies’ June internationals against Scotland, on June 5, and a three-Test series with Wales. He will be joined in a revamped coaching set-up by defence coach Andrew Blades and coaching assistant Nick Scrivener.

“McGahan’s experience as a head coach is considered a major asset for the newly created role, where he will have a significant involvement in the overall coordination of the coaching and management team, as well as the player liaison, assisting head coach Robbie Deans,” an ARU statement read.

McGahan’s last home game in charge of Munster will be the May 5 RaboDirect Pro12 clash with Ulster, the team that knocked them out of Europe earlier this month. Ulster’s reward for that quarter-final win is a Heineken Cup semi-final against Edinburgh this Saturday at the Aviva Stadium.

Ulster will be coming off a 16-8 RaboDirect defeat at home by Leinster at Ravenhill last Friday, hardly ideal preparation ahead of their biggest game since winning the Heineken Cup at Landsowne Road in 1999. Munster and Leinster have won the trophy twice each since but current director of rugby David Humphreys, who captained Ulster that day, believes the ghosts of that 21-6 victory over Colomiers can finally be laid to rest by Johann Muller’s team.

“Everyone involved with Ulster believes that it is time the constant references to 1999 are put to bed – there is no-one left on the playing side so it is time to move on,” Humphreys said. “This current squad is very ambitious and we are just delighted to have qualified for what should be a great semi-final. Two of the four Irish provinces are in the top tier of European teams and we are striving to close that gap on our near neighbours so our quarter-final win against Munster was the culmination of a lot of hard work in the last few years. Now the focus is on Edinburgh because any team that can beat Toulouse has to have put in a very good performance.

“They are more than a match for anyone.”