'Then the cuts came and it was an alarm bell' - Irish abroad facing uncertain future

Back in the day when the AIL had more Kiwi, Aussie and Saffer coaches than you could shake a stick at, a recurring speed-bump was the demands made by a full-time coach on a part-time player.

So it was one thing moaning about ordinary skill levels, it was another thing entirely to expect the player to find the time to change that picture.

Here we are in 2020, wondering what shape 2021 will have, and an Irishman abroad is finding himself in a similar position. It’s all of nine years since Sean Scanlon left Munster for England’s Championship. Between Rotherham, Doncaster and Nottingham, he has carved out a decent career for himself.

In January of this year, Nottingham gave him a two-year contract extension as player/coach. In March, it was shredded.

This is more than your average dilemma. At the opposite end to the decreasing wage is the increasing knowledge in his head, helped by the online tools that have really proved their worth since lockdown. Now he has to work out how to use it on a Tuesday and Thursday night instead of five days a week, as had been the case last season. And if his players had been full-time, then chances are he’ll have to sort a day job himself.

"If I knew I was staying involved in full-time rugby that’s where all my energy and resources would have been going in the last few weeks, but I’m transitioning so I’ve had to take in as much information as I can but also get on with the rest of my life," Scanlon says.

"It will be hard to know how much the players will be able to take on board now on a Tuesday and Thursday night and how they can utilise it best. I think the Stuart Lancaster webinar recently was good – he wasn’t giving away loads of detail. It was quite interesting that he wasn’t saying too much – he gave away just enough, and spoke about principles. And every now and then he went into a little more detail and I could see him going: 'I need to pull the pin here and get out of this!'

"It’s all about players rocking up on a Tuesday and Thursday and not having a stop-start old school session with loads of talking. It’s about being organised and having a flow to it and playing games. It’s about how you design the games. If you spend 10 minutes explaining the game then the intensity of your session is gone."

You imagine Scanlon will cope with it all. Currently the former Munster fullback is well pleased with himself, having picked up awards for Try of the Season and Supporters Player of the Season in Nottingham. His coping started way back in 2013 after two years with Munster that didn’t promise much in the way of games.

Like lots of people in that position, his hunger was to play first and foremost; who he played for came second. So he headed across the water, to Rotherham.

Up until the RFU preempted Covid with their decision to slash funding to the Championship, the road was stretching out nicely ahead of him

"Naively I wasn’t really aware of the financial problems in the RFU," he says.

"In my head I was going: 'The Champ’s a great league, the standard is improving year on year, the crowds are getting a little bit bigger'. Clubs were reaching out to the community a bit more. For me it was all really positive. And I was thinking there’s a genuine coaching career for me in the Championship, because I have a goal to coach at a higher level. Then the cuts came and it was an alarm bell."

So the prospect of a real job raised its head. He’s busy looking around the tech area, and given the contact book he had developed through time served with three Championship clubs – he also coaches another club further down the food chain – he’s confident of getting something suitable.

You look at the experience Scanlon has gained and wonder how useful that would be in an Irish system where, as we put forward in the Sunday Independent a few days ago, the IRFU could support the employment of full-time coaches at the top end of the club game in the AIL.

That didn’t exist when he left. In the unlikely event of us having a regular season kicking off in September, then Scanlon will greet it as a 32-year-old. He has interest from other clubs still in what he can offer on the field, but coaching sounds like it has taken root. So, given all the time we’ve had to reflect on the game and the way it is played, and despite different systems, how much of it is the same, has he a vision of how it would look better?

"Oh, I’d love to have prepared for this question!" he says. "Loads. I’ve actually absorbed so much information over the last few weeks through webinars in England and Ireland. A lot of it is similar to how I’ve seen the game, but brings more detail and understanding as to why you’re doing it. I think that’s the big thing. You need to understand why you’re doing things and you can sell it better to the players. If you only have a sliver of information. I think I’ve developed a deeper understanding of the game."

The battle will be to package it and get it across to players who have other things on their minds.

"We used to have a learning day – it would be learning in the morning and then just going hard in the afternoon and training fast whereas you can’t have that on a Tuesday and Thursday night. You have to make the maximum amount of your time. So something is going to lose out."

You’d back him to strike a good balance.