Matt O'Connor may not be offered a veto on who succeeds him as Leinster coach. But, in an interview with RTE's Game On, he has offered his tuppence nonetheless.
Having worked at close quarters with Leinster cult hero, Leo Cullen, the departed coach fancies Cullen as a future boss at Leinster.
There’s nobody that knows more about Leinster rugby than Leo Cullen.
From my perspective, I certainly wish him all the best. Does he want it? Is it perfect timing? No it’s not, but I think, certainly if you weighed up all the pros and cons, there wouldn’t be too many blokes better to do the job.
He acknowledged that he could have done the job better but he does have a slightly sobering message for Leinster fans in the years ahead.
You can’t win every year, that’s the reality of it. Nobody wins every year.
I think the Leinster fans, as fantastic as they’ve been, need to have a little more clarity in relation to what’s acceptable and what’s realistic.
O'Connor was graceful about his Leinster exit, though he does not regret the bad luck, in the shape of a disastrous injury list, which blighted his time in charge.
We had a pretty disruptive campaign across the whole league. We had injuries at the start of the season, and then it gets broken up with the international schedule. And then we were trying to fight on two fronts at the back end.
So from that perspective it was a very, very frustrating and disjointed campaign for us. To come fifth is no disgrace, but the expectation is higher than that.
He also admitted frustration with the unavailability of national team players for crucial games, a constant refrain throughout his second season.
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