Back in November 2007, just over a year after he had led them to a league title, Mark McCall walked away from Ulster.
From a bright coaching prospect to a man struggling to find a spark in his team, McCall’s reputation took a battering. Ulster felt they could do better once he was gone. They haven’t won a trophy since.
This weekend, at Murrayfield, McCall will attempt to lead Saracens to their second successive Champions Cup. The week after, Sarries will attempt to go another step closer to their fourth Aviva Premiership title in seven seasons.
On The Hard Yards, Isaac Boss gave us an insight [from 39:00] into his former coach’s style of coaching and man-management. It was also suggested that the Saracens director of rugby would be ideal to eventually replace Joe Schmidt as Ireland head coach.
“He was very good with his backline attacks,” Boss said. “We won the league that year, 2005/06, but moved on in unfortunate circumstances. We didn’t have the best of seasons before that and it was early stages of the season so they looked for a different coach.
“We had one of the best backlines in Irish rugby, under him. He was brilliant.
“Mark has been there at Saracens [after a short spell at Castres] ever since he left and you can see how well he is doing. He has instilled a great work ethic in them.”
When Pat Lam won a Guinness PRO12 title with Connacht, he was immediately installed as favourite to succeed Schmidt. Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has since replaced Lam as the likely replacement whenever Schmidt moves on.
13 times capped for Ireland, McCall’s name rarely features in the conversation. Boss added:
“Conor O’Shea has a massive rep but I don’t think he has done quite what Mark McCall has there, at Saracens.”
Sceptics would say that Sarries have bought their way to success but anyone that witnessed their victory over Munster in the Champions Cup semi final will recognise that he has an entire squad playing form him, and each other.
There is another piece of Ulster and Irish interest in the Champions Cup final – Jono Gibbes is assistant coach at Clermont. The former Leinster assistant will take up a role as Ulster head coach next season.
And, you never know, if Gibbes has a good start to life in Belfast, he could soon become the next, newest favourite to replace Schmidt…
