Pity the coaches on European rugby's managerial merry-go-round

Toulon’s Mike Ford is just the latest victim of European clubs’ short-term glory-now thinking in a big-money game where failure is not an option, writes James Harrington.

Northern hemisphere rugby’s managerial merry-go-round is in a constant spin this season – with Toulon’s Mike Ford the latest coach to clear his desk just four matches from the end of the regular Top 14 season.

Richard Cockerill, who became consultant forwards coach at the club days after losing his job as director of rugby at Leicester Tigers in January, will take charge of first-team affairs during a difficult four-match run-in, starting his brief stint against a desperate Toulouse at Marseille’s Velodrome on Sunday, followed by games against top-six contenders Castres, Bordeaux and Pau.

In a terse statement on its website, the club said: “Toulon rugby club and Mike Ford have parted company by mutual agreement as of Monday April 3, 2017.

“Richard Cockerill will take charge of the first team, assisted by Marc Dal Maso.

“Matt Giteau has agreed to lead the backs while continuing as a player.”

The blood on the carpet of the managerial offices at Toulon’s Berg training complex is ankle-deep this season. Diego Dominguez was ousted three months after taking over as head coach, Jacques Delmas left shortly after Ford arrived and Steve Meehan also departed earlier this year after 18 months as an assistant coach.

Former Bath coach Ford’s time at Toulon was always set to be short. He arrived with an emergency brief to turn around the club’s fortunes in September 2016, and was due to leave at the end of the season, anyway, ahead of the arrival of Fabien Galthie.

Despite a promising start, Ford proved unable to live up to the club’s overwhelming ambitions. The Champions Cup quarterfinal exit at Clermont was the final straw for president Mourad Boudjellal.

In truth, it was probably just the catalyst. As painful as that European exit was, the club’s Top 14 situation was probably the killer. Fourth place may seem reasonable – it comes with a play-off place and a Champions League berth – but theirs is a precarious position.

Toulon, comfortably first or second in the table over recent seasons, are just four points – a straightforward bonus-point-free win – in front of eighth-placed Racing 92. And, with a Champions League place and all the money that brings at stake, anything less than a top-six finish is unthinkable.

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Such is the pressure for results in French these days that Toulon are far from the only ones to have installed revolving doors in the manager’s office. One has made permanent boot room changes already; another three will do at season’s end, and two or three others could follow suit.

Bernard Jackman left struggling Grenoble in the past month. Bordeaux’s Raphael Ibanez, Stade Francais’ Gonzalo Quesada and Montpellier’s Jake White will step aside for new arrivals at the end of the season. As-yet-unconfirmed reports in France claim that former Racing coach Pierre Berbizier will replace Vincent Etcheto at red-hot relegation favourites Bayonne next season, while Ugo Mola’s future at Toulouse appears increasingly uncertain as the once-crown princes of French rugby struggle with the game’s nouvelle regime.

It’s easy to wonder, too, about the immediate job security of Racing 92’s coaching duo Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers – even though they have contracts through to the end of the 2019 season – if they fail to guide the club to the Top 14 playoffs and bring top European rugby to the new U Arena next season.

With the exception of Quesada – who rejected the offer of a new contract at Stade – and White, whose indiscreet England ambitions reportedly cost him tenure at Montpellier, all have paid, are paying or may pay the price for their clubs’ over-ambition.

At least nine teams in the Top 14 harbour serious top six ambitions, from the usual suspects of Toulouse, Toulon, Clermont, Racing, Stade Francais and Montpellier, to perennial overachievers Castres and new kids on the block Pau, La Rochelle and Lyon.

Simple maths will tell anyone nine into six doesn’t go, but it’s not enough to save the coaches of results-driven clubs who demand the almost impossible on a daily basis and miracles almost as often.

It adds a generous dose of spice to the two competitions, which is superb for the fans, but such great expectations from club bosses and fans mean failure is not an option for coaches in the Top 14 – or, for that matter in the English Premiership. Both Cockerill and Ford have previously endured that shown-door feeling at Leicester and Bath, respectively.

The Premiership’s situation is similar in many ways to that of clubs in the Top 14. Seven or eight sides probably feel they should occupy the top four slots. Wasps and Sale have had sizeable chunks of money thrown their way – with varying success; Gloucester are on the verge of a major injection of capital; then there are the traditional powerhouses such as Saracens, Leicester, Northampton and Harlequins; even Bristol, for all that they are likely to spend a year in the second-tier Championship are backed by a billionaire owner who is prepared to invest for success. No one should forget, either, the ambitions of Exeter, Newcastle, or even Worcester.

This season alone, Cockerill paid the price for Leicester not being in the top four at the turn of the year, after 12 games of a 22-match regular season. Bristol ditched Andy Robinson after 10 defeats in 10, despite the fact he had guided the club back into the top flight following a seven-year absence. Northampton decided they no longer needed the services of backs coach Alex King. Gloucester’s Laurie Fisher walked after a defeat too far. Sale’s Steve Diamond has previously admitted his job is on the line.

The fact is clubs may talk long-term strategies – Toulon’s Boudjellal has recently spoken of rebuilding rugby’s original Galacticos in a new ‘Made in France’ image, but his business model relies on here-and-now returns coming thick and fast.

It’s the same wherever you look. And that means more demands on coaches for instant success – and owners are clearly willing to act if they believe their management team is not delivering.

Professional rugby in Europe is increasingly focused on short-term thinking based on goals and results for the current season while still ensuring stronger performances down the line. Forever building for the future while delivering in the present – that’s the impossible and uncertain reality facing top-flight rugby coaches across Europe’s league today.

The irony is that in France, Toulon and Racing were both prepared to wait and build for success; the same is true in England for Saracens, Wasps and Exeter. But now they have got it, they cannot afford to let it go even as other clubs – Montpellier, La Rochelle, Pau, for example – catch up.

That constant threat of relegation and ever-increasing competition for those all-important top slots means it’s impossible to fulfil everyone’s domestic and European needs. And it’s going to be the coaches who pay the price.