1
Quesada seemingly holds the key regarding Top 14 return for Rory Teague
By Online Editors
Former Gloucester out-half Rory Teague is in the hunt for a coaching spot at Racing 92 next season.
The Parisians have been chasing the signature of the Super Rugby Jaguars boss Gonzalo Quesada, who previously led State Francais to Top 14 glory.
However, amid fears that Quesada could take up a temporary role with Argentina for the 2019 World Cup, French newspaper Midi Olympique have claimed that Teague’s credentials have strengthened as he would be immediately available to hook up with the 2018 Champions Cup finalists.
Teague has been on the look-out for work since departing Bordeaux last November. The Englishman had initially settled into the general manager role after Jacques Brunel quit for the France national team in January 2018.
However, a poor start to this season caused disgruntlement among the club’s hierarchy and a parting of the ways by mutual consent was the outcome.
It was a big setback for the 34-year-old who had left his role as England’s skills coach in 2017 to join the Top 14 outfit as backs coach.
When he took charge during the Brunel emergency, he became the youngest head coach of a top flight club anywhere in Europe, but he is now looking to get himself back into the sport on a lower rung of the ladder.
It would be ironic if Racing 92 did offer him a job as their vacancy has been created by co-coach Laurent Labit agreeing to become part of the France national team set-up when Fabien Galthie succeeds Brunel as top man following the end of this year's World Cup.
Vern Cotter had apparently wanted to take Teague on at Montpellier only for Mohed Altrad to instead insist on recruiting La Rochelle’s Xavier Garbajosa.
That leaves Teague’s CV sitting on the desk of Jacky Lorenzetti in Paris with the club waiting to hear from afar from Quesada, who coached the Jaguars to a first-ever win at the Hurricanes in Wellington on Friday which puts them level at the top of the South African conference with the Bulls.
WATCH: Leo Cullen looking ahead to Leinster's PRO14 final in Glasgow
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Zebre put up for sale by Italian Rugby Federation
3
Stuart Lancaster 'wants out' of Racing 92 and eyeing Euro giants job
4
Henry Arundell lined up for early England homecoming
5
Latest Comments
"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"
I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.
But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.
Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.
"I'm afraid to say"
Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!
Go to commentsYou are a very horrible man Ojohn. Brain injury perhaps?
Go to comments