Scotland head coach Andy Robinson praised Michael Bradley’s “clear vision” for the future of Edinburgh Rugby as the former Ireland scrum-half and captain was confirmed the new head coach of the capital club at Murrayfield.
The 48-year-old, who was head coach of Magners League minnows Connacht for seven years until last year, was the unanimous choice of the selection panel that included Robinson and Edinburgh chief executive Craig Docherty.
“He was simply the best candidate in every perspective that we looked at,” said Docherty at Murrayfield yesterday, a bold statement given it’s understood two men ahead of Bradley in the Irish system in the last decade former national coach Eddie O’Sullivan and ex-Munster head coach Alan Gaffney had also applied for the job.
“He has vast experience, and a determination that the club goes from strength to strength,” added the chief executive. “There’s a grit and bite to Michael that I think will benefit Edinburgh.
“He ticked more boxes than anyone else, and it’s a fantastic appointment for Edinburgh Rugby.”
Robinson predicted Bradley would help give Edinburgh an identity that was essential to the professional game in Scotland.
“Michael is his own man,” he said in response to a question of whether he would be given a free rein. “He has to create an identity for Edinburgh and he has a clear vision of moving the club forward.
“We have to accept where Edinburgh is, it’s a really good squad full of international players and we wanted that vision, how to create a very good team spirit within the squad and create an identity and Michael was very clear on how he would achieve that.
“He and I have talked at length about the game, the development of rugby and how we move forward, and I think the partnership’s going to be very strong between us.”Two-year dealBradley, who has agreed a two-year deal, wants to get a feel for the squad once he takes over at the end of this week’s final Magners League game of the season in Treviso before making any moves, but he will be given the freedom to make his own appointments of staff and his own signings within budget.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to work with a group of players at least half of whom are full internationals, in an arena such as this and to challenge the players, management and myself to produce excellent performances,” he said.
Since leaving Connacht he has been working the Georgia national side, but the chance to move to Edinburgh was too great to miss, he said.
“I think the critical element that myself and Craig have to identify is develop the entity that is Edinburgh rugby and that will promote Scottish rugby,” he said.
“It’s really important that there’s a strong connection between the fans and the team, and it’s something we’ve got to work hard at, making everyone proud of the jersey.
“That’s my job and I’ll work as hard as I can to produce that for the fans. What the fans have to understand we need volume (of noise) out on the pitch and volume in numbers.
“I was fortunate to be here at the international against Australia 15 months ago and the atmosphere in the last 15 minutes of that match was the greatest I’ve ever encountered so we know the stadium can produce that.
“Edinburgh’s a city of nearly half a million people, and once we build and invest in an identity for the club, the crowd will gather momentum and the rest will follow.”Developmental levelBradley countered the suggestion he had operated at only a developmental level with Connacht and defended his record with them.
“We never saw Connacht as a development team, we never traded on that, even if we did not have the resources of Munster or Leinster,” he said.
“The team struggled to produce consistency of performance and although we finished bottom of the Magners League many times we also qualified for the Amlin Challenge Cup semi-finals three times, so I think we performed very well relative to the resources we had.”
He added that he planned to consult with Robinson on a regular basis.
“He’s a world-class coach so that door is always open, and he’s the kind of guy who will encourage that,” he said.
“We will do things in Edinburgh slightly differently, because we will have a different coaching set-up and the challenges of whom we are playing are different, but the fundamentals will be the same.”
Meanwhile, Glasgow yesterday signed their own Connacht fixture by securing the services of Auckland-born centre/full-back Troy Nathan on a two-year contract.
The powerfully-built 27-year-old spent four seasons with the Galway club and is expected to partly cover the impending departures of Max Evans and Bernardo Stortoni.