745 days – Matt O’Connor’s reign as head coach of Leinster Rugby.
Full of enthusiasm, ideas, opinions, stories. This was O’Connor at a pre-season training session in Kildare, shortly after he arrived from Leicester Tigers, in 2013.
To say he looked a beaten man in recent weeks would be wrong. O’Connor had a hang-dog appearance for most of this season.
From the moment Leinster lost 10-9 to Connacht, in September 2014, he was under pressure. Poor results and performances meant it never let up. Leinster’s win percentage dropped from 77.4% in O’Connor’s first, league-winning season to 53.3% as they finished fifth in the Guinness PRO12.
O’Connor was shown the door by Leinster, this morning, and got his tracksuit top. He won a league and got Leinster to the quarter-final and semi-final of the European Cup but will be regarded, in the near future at least, as a failure.
Here’s where it sometimes went right before it all went wrong [CLICK TO ENLARGE].
2013/14
Castres 19-7 (W)
O’Connor admitted his side had ‘got out of jail’ after an underwhelming performance to the French side. By failing to secure a bonus point, Leinster were already under pressure to top their Heineken Cup group.
Northampton 40-7 (W)
There had been glimpses of an attacking spark in the home win over Cardiff. This Heineken Cup win at Franklin’s Gardens, which featured a Luke Fitzgerald hat-trick and a Brian O’Driscoll between the legs, flicked pass, mixed breakdown domination, inventiveness and bravery to try new things.
Were Leinster back to their best?
Northampton 9-18 (L)
No. Saints showed up in Dublin a week later and mopped the floor with the lacklustre Blues. Jamie Heaslip coughed up an intercept to give Northampton a cherry-on-top try. They would qualify for the knock-out stages but would need to win the competition on the road.
Toulon 14-29 (L)
The French side lost Jonny Wilkinson early but were swatted aside to fall at the quarter-final stage.
PRO12 league win
The highlight of Matt O’Connor’s tenure was surely the 34-12 win in the league final against a very good Glasgow Warriors side. Leinster lost the retiring Brian O’Driscoll after 12 minutes and only led 14-12 at the break. They cut loose in the second half and ripped the Scots apart.
2014/15
Johnny Sexton’s impending return
There were persistent rumours about an early Sexton return, in O’Connor’s first season, but thankfully the matter was settled as early as August 2014. The out-half would be back for 2015/16, after the World Cup, but what type of team would he return to?
Munster 23-34 (L)
The edifying loss to Anthony Foley’s embattled Munster meant Leinster had lost three of their first five games. Foley accused his counterpart of team-sheet hi-jinks while O’Connor bemoaned Munster’s ability to slow play down to a crawl. Asked why his players did not shift the Munster offenders by any means necessary, O’Connor bizarrely blamed ‘soccer moms’ watching the game on TV.
Harlequins 14-28 (L)
By reducing the Champions Cup to 20 teams, organisers made a tough competition infinitely tougher. To gain a home quarter final, a team must win five or six of their games and regularly picked up bonus points. Leinster left The Stoop with ‘0’ after they were outgunned by Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins.
Six Nations window
Given their recent success, Leinster always have high numbers of their squad selected for Ireland duty. In 2013/14, the players that missed out on Ireland selection helped Leinster win 19 out of a possible 20 league points. This season, they took seven from 20 [one win, one draw, two defeats]. Ultimately, it cost them a top four spot.
Bath 18-15 (W)
Each press conference featuring Matt O’Connor featured criticisms about his team’s results and style of play. All involved at the club were starting to get miffed but they righted any perceived wrongs on the pitch. Ian Madigan kicked all six penalties he was offered and Leinster were in their first European Cup semi since 2012.
Dragons 22-25 (L)
With a host of Ireland internationals – Sean O’Brien, Cian Healy, Rob Kearney and more – back in Ireland, Leinster fell to the Welsh region for the second time this season. Ben Te’o [above] scored two tries but Dragons scored two tries while he was off in the sin-bin.
Toulon and Ulster defeats
Reigning European champions in Marseille on Sunday, old rivals Ulster in Belfast on Friday – it was always going to be a tough ask. Leinster lost both, knocking them out of the Champions Cup and the top four race in the PRO12. The writing was on the wall for O’Connor but, in public at least, the coach had the full backing of everyone involved.
Jimmy Gopperth [below] and Rob Kearney missed drop goals against Toulon that could have changed it all.
Joe Schmidt slap-down
The Ireland coach and IRFU High Performance Director invited a select group of journalists along to hear, and report on, what amounted to a public rebuking of O’Connor. The Australian had lamented that he had been forced to rest senior internationals due to a diktat from on high. Schmidt and Nucifora rounded on O’Connor’s claims, which they labelled as false.
Exit by ‘mutual consent’
May 21 2015 and Matt O’Connor is now a former Leinster coach. He will surely find coaching work elsewhere but, with most northern hemisphere sides already well set for next season, may have to look further afield.
