Gaffney isn't up to it anymore

[Leinster Zulu]

Should get someone like Emmet Farrell in to replace him.

[velvitjester]

If you are going to make such a stupid statement at least explain why?

I would have agreed with you mid way thorugh last year,when he insisted on playing flat but he seems to have given up on that and the backline is grand imo.

[Leinster Zulu]

and the backline is grand imo.

We very rarely translate possession into tries. We have scored just five tries in six matches this season, and haven't crossed the whitewash in half of this season's matches despite good enough possession to do so. It's not good enough. We don't look like scoring tries once play settles down after an initial first phase burst of some sort.

[neiliog93]

our backline hasn't really been firing on all cylinders since the early days of Knoxy, and that was with a retreating pack.

I wouldn't say they're particularly bad as the tries vs Munster proved, but there's certainly more potential there.

[Leinster Zulu]

I wouldn't say they're particularly bad as the tries vs Munster proved, but there's certainly more potential there.

When BOD isn't able to get involved heavily the rest of the backline seem to freeze.

[velvitjester]

I wouldn't say they're particularly bad as the tries vs Munster proved, but there's certainly more potential there.

When BOD isn't able to get involved heavily the rest of the backline seem to freeze.

Well when your missing the best player in the world you are obviosly going to suffer.

[cully86]

since gaffney has returned as backs coach, leinster has won a HC

since gaffney has been backs coach of ireland, ireland has won a grandslam.

Results speak louder than words

[Logorrhea]

since gaffney has returned as backs coach, leinster has won a HC

since gaffney has been backs coach of ireland, ireland has won a grandslam.

Results speak louder than words

Good point. Should I open a new thread to suggest we fire everyone EXCEPT Gaffney or can we just do it here

Could never understand people making judgements this early in the season.

[jezzer]

since gaffney has returned as backs coach, leinster has won a HC

since gaffney has been backs coach of ireland, ireland has won a grandslam.

Results speak louder than words

Coincidence. Seriously.

Gaffney isn't responsible for backs' defence and can't be credited with most of our backs tries, which are down to individual skills in broken play (many of them involving BOD).

He's cack. I don't often agree with LZ, but happy to make an exception on Gaffney. Lovely guy, proabably works very well with Cheika and the squad in general, bad backs coach.

[deco]

I am not overly impressed with Gaffney performance since he arrived - I get the impression, (perhaps wrongly) that he views his role as akin to the late Bobby Robson's role with Ireland's puffball team.

On Friday, he spent about 10 minutes chatting with one of the LI players in the middle of the pitch during the warm-up prior to the match. I don't think this was an appropiate time for him to play catch-up with an old aquaintance - but maybe thats just me.

[hugonaut]

Agreed Jezzer.

Cully86, I can see where you're coming from regarding a results-based performance assessment being the final determinant in whether or not a coach is a success, but it's a little bit of sophistry to my mind. I think it's reasonable to use that level of assessment on a head coach, but Gaffney is a specialist coach, namely a backline coach.

His job description obviously covers winning games, but his responsibility is to ensure that the backline is performing well, and any definition of a backline performing well would include scoring tries. It would also include defending well as a unit, being positionally astute without the ball and not missing any tackles, but as we all know, that sphere is the responsibility of Kurt McQuilkin as defense coach at Leinster, and Les Kiss at Ireland. Just as you don't blame Gaffney for defensive coaching errors, you can't reasonably praise him for how stingy our backline defense has been.

The job descriptions of Kiss and McQuilkin include winning games, and they go about this by doing their utmost to ensure that Ireland do not easily concede points. Defense is their sphere, and while they may get asked for their opinions on certain issues, they're not the ones who run the backs through pre-planned moves off first phase, counter-attacking options off broken play and offensive organisation in phase play.

Obviously there's more to conceding points than missing tackles or being out of position, so the Irish and Leinster management will often call on Irish international-level referees to clear up interpretations of the laws, so that when we don't have the ball, we're not giving away penalties, i.e. opportunities for opposition to score directly, or create scoring possibilities. Again, this is the sphere of interest for the referees – obviously they're being consulted with a view to Ireland not conceding points and thus not losing games, but it's in a limited sphere of their own expertise.

It's the same with McQuilkin and Kiss: if in theory, we lost every game 3-0, never missing a tackle or conceding a try throughout the season and being defensively outstanding, would you sack them? I wouldn't: I'd sack the head coach and pretty much everyone else, but I'd keep a hold of the defensive coach who oversaw a team that didn't concede a try all season.

Just as McQuilkin and Les Kiss get credit as part of a winning coaching team, Gaffney should get credit. However, while Kiss and McQuilkin have produced verifiable and statistically evident improvements in their fields, Gaffney hasn't in his. You can tell simply by watching games that Leinster are better defensively than they were three years ago, and statistics will back this up. Similarly, you can tell that the Leinster backline isn't working as well as when Contepomi and Hickey were part of it, D'Arcy was in better form and – most importantly for the sake of the argument – David Knox was backline coach. Seeing as the replacements [Sexton, Fitzgerald, Kearney, Nacewa] are of a very high standard, and that Contepomi as playmaker was there under Gaffney last year as well, I think it's pretty obvious that Gaffney is the cause for concern.

A headcoach is judged on results and winning: this is the most pertinent reason why Declan Kidney is considered a better coach than Eddie O'Sullivan, because despite the fact that under EOS our backline was absolutely phenomenal at running in tries, we never won the 6N or the GS. However, a speciality coach is judged by how his unit – his sphere of expertise – performs, ahead of his results. It's the most important difference between head coaches and assistant coaches.

[Donny B.]

Munster lose and a grey haired Aussie coach is the scapegoat.

Leinster lose and a grey haired Aussie coach is the scapegoat.

Perhaps we're not so different after all.

[Sauvignon Blank]

Munster lose and a grey haired Aussie coach is the scapegoat.

Leinster lose and a grey haired Aussie coach is the scapegoat.

Perhaps we're not so different after all.

Agreed DonnyB.
Although it does makes a change from the usual.... ' Leinster lose and an Aussie Crab scrum half is the scapegoat' type stuff .

This thread os b*%&!x, shut it down.

[Leinster Zulu]

This thread os b*%&!x, shut it down.

[cully86]

my logic is fine. There is very little a backline can do when they do not have fast clean ball from ruck or set piece. We had neither in the LI game. I don't know if gaffney's remit covers breakdown/continuity- its probably cheika or gibbes concern- but without the aforementioned a backline cannot function. When leinster have been able to generate quick go-forward in the ruck, and nice clean possession off the set-piece, the backline has worked well IMO: the munster game being a good example.

I don't know about the internal operations of the team, the same as most people here, but in the bits written in the papers and the team interviews given you get a sense that gaffney is a popular and important member of the staff. I really do not think that Leinster could of won a HC, or Ireland a slam even, with a duff coach working in such an important and specialist area: i know drico for instance is the sort of player who demands good quality coaching and analysis.

this thread is witch-hunting rubbish. We had it towards the end of the pool stages last year- even in the newspapers (certain poor quality writers from the indo)- but everything went quite when we started to get tangible results.

[gfo]

gaffneys savage when score tries
he's sh!t when we dont


so sick of hearing this

[Leinster Zulu]

gaffneys savage when score tries

When has anyone said this?

[gfo]

gaffneys savage when score tries

When has anyone said this?

when the team scores tries, obviously

[Leinster Zulu]

gaffneys savage when score tries

When has anyone said this?

when the team scores tries, obviously

When has anyone gone out of their way to praise Gaffney (apart from after he supposedly saw the error of his ways last season after six months of tosh) since his return?

[gfo]

how many times do you want me to say "when Leinster score tries"?