Former All Black fly-half Tony Brown has emerged as the leading contender to replace Pat Lam as Connacht’s director of rugby next season. Brown, 41, is currently preparing the Otago Highlanders for the Super Rugby season, but has only agreed to undertake the head coach role for the 2017 Super Rugby season.
That season runs until late July, or early August if the Highlanders reach the final, which would not be ideal for Connacht, whose pre-season starts at the end of June. IRFU performance director David Nucifora could make allowances for a highly-rated coach, who was briefly touted as a potential replacement for Matt O’Connor at Leinster the summer before last.
Brown, inset, who won 18 caps for New Zealand, has a reputation for promoting an exciting, expansive ball-in-hand game very much in keeping with the Connacht’s ambitions. He already has a family link to the club, as his brother Cory worked for several years as an elite player development officer in the province.
No announcement on the Connacht position is expected for a few weeks, as Nucifora is on holiday in Australia until the end of the month. Such an appointment would fit into his stated plan to have the strongest possible set of coaches operating in Irish rugby. “Professional sport is all about getting the best people,” he said last May, when Munster signed Rassie Erasmus. “This means we’ve another top class operator in the Irish system.”
It may not be such good news for aspiring young Irish coaches. Two of those — Allen Clarke and Neil Doak — are expected to leave Ulster at the end of this season. Les Kiss has informed the pair that he is reviewing his back-up team for next season. David Hewett, another former All Black, has been mentioned as a possible replacement as forwards coach.