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Saracens begin search for replacement for new coach

Saracens: Searching for the next coach

Posted 15th April, 2006

 

Just days after the appointment of Alan Gaffney as coach at Saracens, club officials have earnestly begun their search for his successor.

 

With Saracens having used seven coaches in as many seasons, officials feel it is only sensible to begin the search for a new coach before Gaffney has even taken up office.

 

The Vicarage Road side have failed to build on the success they achieved in the early days of professionalism and have seemingly had a revolving door coaching policy. Since Mark Evans left the position vacant in 1999, Alan Zondagh, Francois Pienaar, Wayne Shelford, Rod Kafer, Steve Diamond and Eddie Jones have operated in the hot seat for varying lengths of time. The move to line up Gaffney’s replacement is seen as an example of a ‘professional pre-emptive crisis-management procedure’.

 

‘Whilst the media may make a song and dance about this,’ said a club spokesperson, ‘it is standard operating procedure at Saracens. It is a little known fact that when Alan Zondagh took the post, we already had recruited the coaches for the next three years. If anything, we are behind at the moment. We also need to look at the replacement for Gaffney’s replacement.’

 

Club officials also revealed that Gaffney’s contract had a clause which states he is not entitled to a welcoming party or leaving cake. Officials discontinued the practice after an excessively high catering bill over the past seven years. Departing and arriving coaches now simply get a greeting card, with costs met by all the players and administrative staff. ‘Besides,’ said the spokesperson, ‘our players were getting overweight from the constant supply of welcome and leaving cakes. It was driving our nutritionist mad.’

 

Applicants for the next three head coaching positions at Saracens are being invited to submit their coaching CVs to the club.