Eeny, meeny, miny, moe?
So the season is almost at an end and with just the league finals to go, Edinburgh, who have known since at least 24th February 2023, and probably even earlier, that they needed a new head coach for the 2023-2024 season are still rudderless. Or are they?
Here at Burgh Watch HQ we, (well me) have put our best (only) investigator on the job and have added 2 +2 and come up with 1872.
Here's the theory (crackpot idea), Edinburgh have agreed a deal for a new head coach already but because the man they have selected is currently contracted to a country who will be taking part in the WC the SRU have either agreed to keep schtum till that country are eliminated or in the event that it’s someone attached to Scotland they probably don’t want to admit it just now because it’s a tacit admission that they think he’ll be available for his new role by final whistle on 7/10/23.
So with those firm foundations laid here are some suggestions on who might be a decent fit and an assessment of the likelihood of them taking on the Edinburgh head coach role.
As a further limiter I've not looked at any head coaches. Those that might consider Edinburgh an improvement are not who we want and those whom we'd want will be like ‘aye, that'll be right’. As an example Japan coach Jamie Joseph may fall into the latter category but Georgia head coach Merab Maishavilli probably isn't someone we'd shortlist.
So it's defence or attack coaches we are looking at.
Mike Catt. The former England man is currently assistant coach at Ireland and has done defence coach duties at Italy in a previous existence. He kicked off his coaching career at London Irish with a player/coach role before taking up an attack coach role with England under Stuart Lancaster. He has now been with Ireland for 4 years which is his longest spell in any of his coaching jobs. There is nothing to suggest he’ll be moving on after the World Cup but he’s never had a head coach role so if he has any ambition in that regard Edinburgh could be a good destination.
Scott Mcleod is the current All Blacks attack coach and a former NZ International. He is set to be jettisoned after the World Cup with Scott Robertson taking over from Ian Foster and bringing in his own team in the form of Leon MacDonald, Jason Donald and Scott Hansen. Before joining the AB set up McLeod had been skills coach at Waikato Chiefs. Of course the three names mentioned are leaving gaps at their Super Rugby clubs and Mcleod is rumoured to be Hurricanes bound.
Steve Tandy is the current Scotland defence coach and his previous coaching pedigree includes winning the Pro12 as head coach with Ospreys in 2012. He also led the Welsh province to 2 semi finals before taking up a post as Waratahs defence coach in 2018. With Townsend locked in for another 2 years could Tandy be the Edinburgh man for that period with his eye on the main prize thereafter? It would be a very SRU move.
Matt Taylor. The Current Australia defence coach. He played for Edinburgh between 2000-2002 (player no.1020). He was defence coach at Queensland Reds when they won the Super Rugby title and was in the same role at Glasgow when they won the Pro12. He was assistant Scotland coach between 2017 - 2019 before being poached by Dave Rennie to head home and take up a defence coach role with The Wallabies. Rennie has now been discarded in favour of former England coach Eddie Jones which just doesn't seem like a long term relationship.
Alex King. Speaking of short term arrangements I don't see Gatland being long at Wales so perhaps his attack coach might become available at the end of their probably short WC journey. King was a fly half with Wasps and Clermont and was also capped by England. Since then he’s had defence and backs coach roles with Clermont, Northampton, Montpellier and Gloucester.
John Dalziel has been assistant/forwards coach with Scotland since 2020. Before that he was with Glasgow as forwards coach and had been head coach at Scotland 7’s before that. See Steve Tandy for why this might be an option.
I also liked the look of former Munster man Felix Jones who is currently defence coach with South Africa but he is joining the England set up after the WC.
A couple of other names have been suggested along the way. These aren’t world cup coaches but may come into the running.
Clark Laidlaw is Roy Laidlaw's son and is currently New Zealand 7’s coach. He has lived in New Zealand since 2008 and is in the frame for the super rugby vacancies already mentioned. Brad Davis is the defence coach at London Irish and with the capital side being another English club whose future is in doubt perhaps he might be interested in some stability.
Ultimately these are all educated shots in the dark but the World Cup thing may just hold water. Consider this. The patter is that Edinburgh are taking their time in order to get the right man. Whilst that is laudable how long do we need if it's only due diligence holding things up? We are at 3 months and counting. Have we not had 3 Prime Ministers in a similar time frame? Mind you, that’s as good a reason as any for taking your time.
Let’s face it, Edinburgh head coach is a decent job but it’s not a great job so the shortlist could have been whittled down pretty quickly. An interview, an offer and if you’ve put yourself forward for the post or have expressed interest once approached surely we’d want a decision toot suite. If the answer is, ‘I've changed my mind’ we can go back to the drawing board. Of course if paragraph 3 of this article is in any way accurate then the delay is quite simple to explain.
Or, and this is a cynical take. We have got someone but it’s not a name to get the pulse racing so with season ticket sales now underway the thinking is let’s continue to suspend belief until we are ‘all in’ for the season ahead.
If this is all smoke and mirrors I’ll pretend it never happened.