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O'Brien, Jackson head big-name cast coaching London Irish amateurs
By Liam Heagney
London Irish Wild Geese, the Regional 2 Thames amateur team attached to the Gallagher Premiership club, have unveiled a big-name cast of coaches for the 2022/23 season which includes ex-Ireland internationals Sean O’Brien and Paddy Jackson. Having retired from playing in May, O’Brien has since taken up a role as a contact skills coach with his native Leinster.
However, his ties at London Irish, whom he joined in 2019, haven’t been completely cut as he will be technical director of rugby for the Wild Geese who have a coaching roster consisting of head coach Ryan Gregory and assistants Hugh O'Sullivan, Jackson, Matt Cornish and Willie Lafolafo.
Jackson, who will provide attack and skills coaching, hooked up with the Wild Geese at Irish towards the end of the 2021/22 season and he will now continue to assist the amateur side in what will be his fourth Premiership season playing at London Irish under Declan Kidney.
“I’m really looking forward to getting to know the players and coaches better this season and am excited at the prospect of where we can take this Wild Geese squad,” he told the club website. “Hazelwood is a fantastic home of rugby in South West London and if we can form a tighter relationship between the amateur and professional set up that will be an added bonus!”
Regarding the appointment of O’Brien, a statement read: “London Irish Amateur Rugby Football Club are privileged to announce Sean O'Brien will be taking up the role of technical director of rugby for the London Irish Wild Geese for the coming season 2022/2023.
“Sean had a distinguished career and LIARFC are delighted he has accepted a formal role within the club. Last season Sean was a key part of the senior coaching structure and next season Sean will be working with his close colleague and new head coach for adult rugby, Ryan Gregory, who joins us having previously coached at Chobham and Camberley.”
With Gregory also taking on the role of forwards coach, it leaves professional team scrum-half O’Sullivan assisting as backs and skills coach with fellow pro Matt Cornish serving as scrum coach. Lafolafo, a former rugby league pro player, will act as a strength and conditioning coach.
The London Irish Wild Geese finished twelfth in London 1 South last season, the division that London Welsh were promoted from to Regional 1 South Central following their second place finish.
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Latest Comments
What’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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