The appointment today of Sir Ian McGeechan as Bath’s performance director is a significant statement by the club of its intention under Bruce Craig, its multi-millionaire new owner, to ensure it returns to the summit of the English and European game. McGeechan, 62, has accepted a final challenge in what has been an illustrious career to help put in place a legacy that will last for decades, which is Craig’s ultimate vision.
McGeechan has signed a two-year contract with an option for a third and starts work on July 12. After leaving London Wasps in 2009 McGeechan led the Lions to South Africa. Since then he has acted as an advisor at Gloucester which gave him time to assess what he wanted to do next. He said the over-arching role at the Recreation Ground was one he could not resist.
“I like the excitement, the involvement, the adrenalin rush of thinking about the game and performance and it has been great to have ten months to realise that in my own mind it is something that is still the closest to my heart,” McGeechan said.
“The vision for Bath is about having a long-term view that top-class rugby is here to stay because the planning and forward thinking is such that it is driving the club with a consistency, so that the base is right for ten, 20, 50 years and putting something down which is there in a very powerful way.
“This is an exciting project. I have always admired Steve and what he does here and with Bruce’s vision for the club and to have the opportunity to be part of that is really exciting. I had to know I wanted to be involved in something full on. I am very clear in my own mind that this was a different opportunity which again makes it exciting and challenging. It is nice to be able to look at things in a wider perspective rather than in the past being hands-on.”
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In his coaching career McGeechan has led the Lions on four occasions in 1989, 1993, 1997, and 2009. He has coached Scotland for whom he played 32 times, and at club level Northampton and London Wasps, with whom he won the Heineken Cup, the Premiership and the Anglo-Welsh Cup. A rugby consultancy role with the Lions will continue ahead of the 2013 tour to Australia, a commitment amounting he said to no more than a few days a year.
McGeechan’s appointment is part of Craig’s desire to turn the club inot a powerhouse of the game once more. When buying Bath from Andrew Brownsword he said he had three aims which formed part of his overall strategy. The first two were to develop the rugby management side and to concentrate training and other resources in one new complex based at Farleigh Hungerford which have now been completed. The final piece of the jigsaw is a new stadium. Craig hinted strongly that with the drive, ambition and willingness of all parties, that could yet still be achieved at the Recreation Ground rather than at a new purpose-built arena.