Cannot see us anywhere close. I suspect Toonie needs to be within 10 to keep his job
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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Contract up in 1.5 years. Surely it's not going to be that expensive to buy him out. New performance director David Nucifora is over from Ireland and has a reputation for taking tough decisions.
I'm not sure. I suspect Toonie might just start shopping around to see what can be done if he falls flat this weekend. The SRU may only pull the trigger if they get Franco Smith to commit to the top job. The SRU could in theory switch the coaches around even. Why not let Gregor go back to the basics and squad development for a time? (Why not the Edinburgh job?)
I'd LOVE if Toonie would do the Edinburgh job but I think once you've broken into international coaching you need to swap to another national team to make it not look like a demotion.
If you look at how Franco Smith put himself in the shop window by making a few flirty comments to Welsh media about being a national coach it seems like a one-way street. Basically coaches bide their time at club level, repeat platitudes about not being interested in the international level until their reputation has started to preceed them and then they try to make their move.
There are exceptions to this like coaching a premium club Leinster, Toulouse or La Rochelle but Edinburgh isn't in the same league. Everrit seemed like more of a necessity to install as coach because no one else was interested. I suspect the players have a tendency to phone it in due to the international spotlight being too intoxicating (or some other issue like that); Mike Blair left under strange circumstances that made it sound like personality issues even though he said it was "family" decision according to him.
Yes, Blair was suspicious. And Edinburgh's form also telling imo. There's one or two people, maybe players, maybe back room, maybe board room, that are holding Edinburgh back I suspect. Toonie could brush that aside potentially, but yes its seen as a demotion indeed. Won't happen in a Lions year either