Following hot on the heels of Declan Kidney's departure to the Gwent Dragons, Leinster and Irish rugby could lose the services of the province's assistant coach Willie Anderson, who was interviewed for the role of Scottish assistant coach in Edinburgh on Wednesday, writes Gerry Thornley
Former Leinster boss Matt Williams is keen to renew the longstanding friendship and the highly-effective working partnership he had with the former Irish captain in their Leinster days together.
The position of Scottish assistant coach has become vacant after the former All Black captain Todd Blackadder made clear his intentions to stand down from the role so as to concentrate on his playing and coaching responsibilities with Edinburgh.
Although the Scottish RFU advertised the post, significantly Anderson was approached by Murrayfield and invited over for a formal interview, by a panel comprising Williams, Scottish director of rugby Ian McGeechan and Scottish CEO Philip Anderton.
Confirming the interview took place in Edinburgh on Wednesday yesterday, Anderson commented: "They asked me over for a meeting to discuss the assistant coach's job and the meeting went very well. However, I haven't been offered anything yet and beyond that there isn't much else to say."
A potentially attractive feature of the Scottish position, were he offered it, is that - as with Kidney's appointment at the Dragons - it is believed Anderson could commute from his family home in Dungannon, much as he has been doing with Leinster for the past three seasons.
Anderson has twice been overlooked for the head coaching role with his native Ulster as well as once at Leinster last summer. Were he to team up with Williams again, it would see virtually the complete break-up of the coaching ticket (save for scrum coach Roly Meates) which helped transform Leinster from under-achievers to Celtic League champions the season before last and European Cup quarter-finalists and semi-finalists in the last two seasons. Williams also took Brett Igoe to Scotland as his video analyst.
Losing Williams to a national coaching job was perhaps unavoidable, having already fought off interest from Saracens a year before for the Australian, but Leinster might never have lost Alan Gaffney to Munster had they not taken their eye off him at the time when he was on a relative pittance and coming to the end of his contract as the province's assistant coach.
Leinster have had a fairly dismal year in Gary Ella's first season in charge, failing to make the knock-out stages of the European Cup for the first time in three years after losing pool games at home to Sale Sharks and away to Biarritz.
They are also lingering in the bottom half of the Celtic League table, where they have won just one of their last eight matches, which prompted crisis meetings between the Leinster CEO Mick Dawson and Ella and Anderson, as well as with captain Reggie Corrigan.
Admittedly, Leinster have had to absorb more international call-ups than any of the provinces and their season has been blighted by mishaps, such as in the infamous Felipe Contepomi registration gaffe and a horrendous spate of injuries.
They have also moved their final Celtic League match against Gwent Dragons next Friday to Lansdowne Road, such is the dangerously barren state of the over-used Donnybrook pitch, which the CEO of the Irish Rugby Union Players' Association, Niall Woods, has at least partially blamed for some recent injuries following complaints to him by Leinster players.
