Neil Francis has taken his dislike of Matt O'Connor to new levels in his Sunday Independent column today. Francis has long been critical of the way O'Connor has taken to control at Leinster, but from the opening paragraph today he takes it to new levels.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago that there was very little point in replacing Matt O'Connor as Leinster coach until they found someone better, but with every passing performance from this Leinster side the entry level for new candidates gets lower and lower.
That's the sort of opening to an article that would get you to spit out your food. Francis continues by saying that newly eligible candidates after Leinster's turgid display against the mighty Treviso on Friday night now include the likes of Krusty the Clown, Pee Wee Herman, Panti Bliss and the Grand Old Duke Of York.
Francis had previously said that O'Connor had taken the Brazilian team of the 1970's and made them play long ball football such was the detoriation of Leinster's backplay since he took over.
Francis points out that a feature of Leinster sides under Cheika and Schmidt was the ability for the non-internationals to step up to the cause when called upon and deliver results. That's been a big reason why Leinster are out of the playoffs in the Pro 12 this season for the very first time.
This is quite a big worry with the World Cup approaching and O'Connor's apparent reluctance to give gametime to any academy players or recent graduates with only Jack Conan and Martin Moore getting any meaningful time of the huge number of talented youngsters available to Leinster that have seen Quinn Roux, John Cooney, Sam Coughlan Murray, Conor Gilsenan and Jordan Coughlan leave for other teams under his tenure.
Francis points to the dwindling support numbers, and their enthuasism at games when handling errors and the backplay is so bad that it Francis thinks O'Connor has turned Leinster into the "Newcastle United of the Pro 12. It would be interesting to see if O'Connor comes from the same school of thought as John Carver.
We're not sure who should be more offended by that - Leinster or Newcastle United.
See Also: Neil Francis Really Went To Town On Matt O’Connor Today
See Also: Things Appear To Be Going From Bad To Worse For Newcastle After Latest Reported Bust-Up
Photo Credit Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
