Former Munster head coach lands Northampton job

Jack O'Toole

Another stop on the storied career of Alan Gaffney.

Northampton have appointed the former Munster head coach as their technical coaching consultant until the end of the 2017/18 season.

Gaffney, who also served as a backs coach for Leinster and Ireland, arrives at the club following the sacking of former director of rugby Jim Mallinder earlier this month.

The 70-year-old Australian leaves his role as Rugby Australia’s national elite programmes coach to oversee the existing coaching team of head coach Alan Dickens, forwards coach Dorian West and Phil Dowson, who will now oversee defence.

“We are delighted to have recruited Alan as our technical coaching consultant until the end of the season,” said Northampton Saints CEO Mark Darbon.

“Alan is hugely experienced and admired throughout the game for being a forward thinking, innovative rugby coach.

“His CV speaks for itself; he has been successful with some of the best teams in the world – including winning a Six Nations Grand Slam and Heineken Cup – and has a clear understanding of how to set-up an effective all-around rugby team. He also has a proven track record of developing some of the world’s best coaches and players.

“Alan will take on responsibility for the rugby department and will lead the existing coaching group made up of Alan Dickens, Dorian West, Mark Hopley and Phil Dowson.

“In parallel, the Board will continue to focus on the recruitment of a permanent Director of Rugby to be in place for the start of the 2018/19 season. As I have said previously, there has been a great deal of interest in this vacancy and we hope to be able to announce this appointment in the coming months.”

ALAN GAFFNEY’S COACHING CAREER