FORMER CARDIFF BLUES boss Dai Young has returned as the interim director of rugby after coach John Mulvihill left his position as head coach with “immediate effect due to personal reasons”, the Welsh capital club announced today.
Young was in charge of the Blues during their most successful period in the professional era from 2003-2011 while Mulvihill, who took over ahead of the 2018/19 season, was in the final months of a three-year contract.
Cardiff said former Wasps boss Young would take on a watching brief ahead of Saturday’s Guinness Pro14 derby against the Scarlets, before officially starting on Monday.
Under former Wales and British and Irish Lions prop Young, 53, Cardiff won the Anglo-Welsh Cup and European Challenge Cup in 2009 and 2010 respectively, while they also reached the semi-finals of what is now the European Champions Cup.
In a decade at Wasps, he took the club from second bottom in the English Premiership to three successive play-offs, including the final in 2017.
Cardiff chief executive Richard Holland, explaining the reasons for the 55-year-old Mulvihill’s departure, said: “With the unprecedented challenges of a global pandemic, it has become an increasingly difficult time in both professional rugby and John’s personal circumstances. He has not seen three of his daughters for two years now and this has played a significant part in the decision.”
Under Mulvihill, the Blues finished a mediocre eighth and ninth in the Pro 14. They are currently seventh, with four wins and six losses.
Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey chat Pro14 interpros, the potential solution to the Lions’ problem, and Paul O’Connell’s appointment as Ireland’s forwards coach:
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