EOIN TOOLAN WILL reunite with Australia boss Joe Schmidt as part of the Wallabies’ new coaching ticket.
Our very own Rugby Weekly Extra analyst, who previously worked with Schmidt during his Ireland reign, will assume the role of skills coach and head of analysis as the Wallabies gear up for a pivotal year for rugby union Down Under.
Laurie Fisher, who was Munster forwards coach under Tony McGahan from 2008 to 2011, also joins Schmidt’s backroom as assistant coach.
Wicklow native Toolan is currently based in Sydney, where he has worked for the last three years as an account executive for global sports-analysis firm Hudl.
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Greystones RFC clubman Toolan previously spent seven years as head performance analyst and development coach with Super Rugby franchise Melbourne Rebels, moonlighting as NRC club Melbourne Rising’s head coach during his final year in Australia’s ‘Garden City’ in 2019.
The following summer, he was appointed assistant coach and head of analysis of Kintetsu Liners in Japan, where he spent a season before returning home to Australia.
Toolan has also been a regular contributor to The 42 since 2019, most notably on Wednesday episodes of our Rugby Weekly Extra podcast in which his forensic analysis of matches from both hemispheres has proven a massive hit with rugby nauses the world over. He also wrote analysis columns for this publication during the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, as well as during the 2020 Six Nations.
Toolan began working in performance analysis in 2007 when his fellow Greystones clubman Kurt McQuilkin needed a hand with the digital side of his IRFU High Performance role.
Toolan, who had graduated from Griffith College with a degree in Media and Visual Communications two years earlier, took on some freelance work for his club coach, cutting game tape, compiling footage onto DVDs, and sending statistical reports to the four provincial academy managers.
His initial remit was to track the progress of a group of 15 promising players — a list which included Johnny Sexton, Cian Healy, Seán O’Brien, Felix Jones, and Ian Keatley.
Over the next 12 months, Toolan went on to work with Leinster U20s, Ireland Schools, Ireland U20s and other representative teams.
The Ireland men’s team’s head analyst, Mervyn Murphy, hired him as a full-time assistant in June 2008. Toolan was 26. A year later, he was celebrating a Grand Slam.
He remained with Ireland throughout Declan Kidney’s reign and indeed for Joe Schmidt’s induction in November 2013.
Toolan’s final game involved with Ireland was the famous last-gasp loss to the All Blacks. He was then head-hunted by Melbourne Rebels boss Tony McGahan, on the recommendation of ex-Ireland backs coach Alan Gaffney, and relocated with his wife Sinead to Australia ahead of the 2014 Super Rugby season.
Toolan and Schmidt have continued to trade notes over the years, however, and were most recently spotted sitting next to each other at the Waratahs’ 23-21 defeat to the Highlanders at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium last Friday.
The pair will now reunite officially ahead of the Rugby Championship in August as Schmidt begins a reign which will take in at least the Wallabies’ home Lions tour in 2025, and perhaps extend as far as their home World Cup two years later.
