{"id":658459,"date":"2026-08-27T01:59:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T01:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658459\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T01:59:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T01:59:22","slug":"its-a-very-very-high-calibre-of-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658459\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s a very, very high calibre of people\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u20ac52 million Laya Arena, a redevelopment of the RDS, came in on time and on budget. Leinster Rugby<\/a> chief executive Shane Nolan confirmed as much along with a selection of facts and figures, financial and otherwise, ahead of a tour of the new facilities on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

But for all the shiny, sparkly renovation, it was the chat about rugby matters that dominated the conversation and specifically the hunt for a successor to Leo Cullen, who will step down at the end of the upcoming season. Nolan confirmed that the process was under way and that the calibre of the applicants or candidates was commensurate with one of the most sought-after jobs in world rugby.<\/p>\n

He was happy to talk about the process but declined to comment on or reveal any names. There is no specific time frame in appointing a successor other than securing whom they deem to be the \u201cright person\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nolan explained that Leinster are leading a process that includes IRFU input.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be three primary people involved in it, from the Leinster side; me, Guy Easterby, our chief operating officer, and Frank Doherty, who\u2019s our head of our Professional Game Board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working hand in glove with [the IRFU\u2019s] David Humphreys who is part of that decision making. The key part of the process really and the most critical part is defining the criteria we want for the new head coach in terms of what are the skills, expertise, experience and attributes of the person we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to identify key criteria for the role, Nolan added: \u201cI can\u2019t discuss that. It\u2019s confidential.\u201d He did confirm that \u201cwe talked to some of our senior player leadership group just to sound them out in terms of how they were feeling about it. They would have been part of that process.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe newly refurbished Laya Arena came in under budget and on time. Photograph: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a broad number of people we got opinions from, but the key thing was aligning that criteria. And once we\u2019ve aligned with that, then it\u2019s a case of considering candidates. Hopefully everything should go relatively seamlessly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been incredibly impressed with the calibre of people who have been interested since the news broke. It\u2019s a very, very high calibre of people who are being considered or being talked to or have expressed interest in the role, so that\u2019s really, really pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whoever is chosen will have an input into choosing his assistants as the rest of the Leinster coaching group, Jacques Nienaber, Se\u00e1n O\u2019Brien, Tyler Bleyendaal, Robin McBryde and Emmet Farrell will be out of contract at the end of the season. <\/p>\n

Nolan said: \u201cOnce that head coach is appointed, the next conversation will be how that head coach will build the team around them, and indeed, that\u2019s part of the conversation. We\u2019ll be talking about the process of landing the first person, and then the next question will be what does a team look like when a person has a structure and who are the people in such a structure?\u201d<\/p>\n

He confirmed that anyone coaching at next year\u2019s World Cup in Australia would not be ruled out of consideration and therefore there was no requirement for Cullen\u2019s successor to be in place for preseason ahead of the 2027-2028 season.<\/p>\n

Nolan admitted Leinster\u2019s penchant for signing All Blacks on six-month contracts, firstly Jordie Barrett and then Rieko Ioane, won\u2019t be replicated for the current campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve both been incredibly successful for us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a new kind of experiment. That\u2019s not available to us this year because the New Zealand Union don\u2019t allow it in a Rugby World Cup year. But we would be interested in looking at that again for sure. We\u2019re always looking at non-Irish qualified players to come in and supplement our squads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Lowe has left Leinster to play in Japan. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpo <\/p>\n

When asked whether there would be any further addition to the Leinster squad for the upcoming season, Nolan admitted: \u201c[There\u2019s] always scope to add to it, yeah. It\u2019s fixed at the moment, we\u2019re very happy with the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always looking, continuing to see if there\u2019s any opportunities to bolster that, for the right person. That\u2019s always an ongoing process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about James Lowe\u2019s departure to take up a contract in Japan and whether more could have been done to keep him, Nolan said that he was disappointed to see the wing leave the province but respected his decision to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much effort and conversation and that\u2019s probably the learning that it probably went on for too long, if you know what I mean, and that\u2019s on everybody\u2019s side as well. We had very open conversations. The numbers were there, the offers were there. I respect James\u2019s decision. We wish him nothing but the best, but we miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open in time for the recent Dublin Horse Show, the Laya Arena is undergoing a makeover to ensure that it\u2019s fit to cater for rugby matches and the soft opening of a preseason friendly against Zebre on Saturday, September 12th. Not everything will be in situ by then, but the attendance will be capped and all should be ready for Leinster\u2019s first home URC game against Cardiff on October 10th.<\/p>\n

The new Anglesea stand will house 6,775 spectators, 5,500 seated with a further 1,200 standing places, accommodated in batches of 200 across six enclosures at the front of the stand. There are three corporate suites that can cater for between 100 and 500 patrons. There are seven bars, 20 food vans and if all the seats in the new stand were laid end to end, they would stretch to the Halfpenny Bridge over the Liffey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u20ac52 million Laya Arena, a redevelopment of the RDS, came in on time and on budget. Leinster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,12861,53475,132],"class_list":["post-658459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-leo-cullen","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117165003146553118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}