THE NEWS THAT Leo Cullen will step down as Leinster head coach at the end of the 2026/27 season will have piqued the interest of many of the game’s top coaches.
Leinster is one of the most attractive jobs in rugby, given their place in Irish Rugby, budget and track record of producing Test players.
Cullen has been in the job since 2015, winning 11 trophies in his 11 years at the helm. They haven’t had the level of success they would have hoped for in Europe, but by any measure, Cullen’s are big shoes to fill.
And with his departure date now confirmed, it raises some interesting possibilities about who might step into the role.
As a starting point, Leinster might do worse than give Jacques Neinaber a new, broader remit.
The South African has been on board since 2023 as a ‘senior coach’, but Nienaber himself has stated that he runs the rugby programme. With Cullen moving on, perhaps Nienaber would fancy a shot at having even more control and taking full responsibility when it comes to things like team selection.
Nienaber's current contract expries in 2027. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
A two-time World Cup winner, Nienaber remains one of the most respected and in-demand coaches in the sport, and is believed to be a very popular figure within the playing group.
Nienaber has been strongly linked with a return to the Springboks when his current contract ends at the end of next season, but Cullen’s news might tempt Nienaber into a longer stay. If Leinster really wanted to make that deal happen, perhaps they could take the bold move of allowing Nienaber link up with South Africa for the World Cup window before returning to Leinster after, with one of his assistants taking the reins in his absence.
Should Leinster decide to look elsewhere, Noel McNamara would be a popular choice.
The Clare native knows the province well, having worked his way up through the schools game, winning two Leinster Schools Senior Cups with Clongowes and coaching Leinster and Ireland schools sides. He worked with some of the current group at Leinster U20s and Leinster A level, and was also Leinster Academy manager.
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He’s since moved on to work with the Sharks in South Africa before his current role with Bordeaux-Begles. As attack coach, McNamara has been key to the rise of a brilliant UBB side, who won their first Champions Cup title last year and backed it up with a dominant showing against Leinster in this year’s final.
The slick, open attacking rugby employed by Bordeaux is exactly the type of game Leinster fans want to see more of from their team. However, McNamara recently agreed a new contract extension to 2029, which could complicate any move.
McNamara isn’t the only attractive option in France, and surely the Leinster decision makers will weigh up the pros and cons of having Ronan O’Gara running things at UCD.
The La Rochelle boss led his team to the Top 14 play-offs this season after a late surge, and while it was far from a vintage year for the club, his previous achievements keep him right up there among the game’s elite coaches. A two-time Champions Cup winning coach, and a constant thorn in the side of Leinster during La Rochelle’s glory years, O’Gara would relish working with such a talented group.
His status as a Munster legend might count against him with some supporters, but the competitor in O’Gara would back himself to get Leinster over the line in Europe again. The Cork man has been open about his ambitions to coach at Test level but with Andy Farrell signed on with Ireland until 2031, O’Gara might see Leinster as a more attractive option than say England, who also could be looking for a new coach after next year’s World Cup.
Stuart Lancaster has a warmer history with Leinster, and Connacht supporters will be getting chills at the very thought of losing their head coach to a team he knows so well. Like McNamara, Lancaster played a key role in the development so many of the current Leinster squad, working in tandem with Cullen in that senior coach role from 2016-2023 and helping the province to their most recent Champions Cup success (2018).
Lancaster has had a huge impact at Connacht in his first season, but with his contract running until 2027, the province will hope he isn’t thrown into the usual coaching merry-go-around that greets a World Cup year.
Lancaster won one Champions Cup and four league titles during his time with Leinster. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Perhaps the province will look to one of Lancaster’s favourite Leinster students. Johnny Sexton was central to getting the former England head coach on board at Leinster, and since retiring the former out-half has taken the first steps in his own coaching career. Andy Farrell’s respect for Sexton saw the former Leinster and Ireland captain added to the Ireland coaching team, while he also was part of Farrell’s staff on last year’s Lions tour.
Should Sexton fancy a crack at stepping up as head coach, he’d be a popular appointment with the Leinster fans, even if his lack of experience would make it a somewhat risky move – something Leinster haven’t shied away from in the past.
Another former Leinster 10 and teammate of Sexton, Felipe Contepomi, would represent a more experienced option, and on paper looks an ideal candidate. Contepomi was highly regarded during his time as Leinster backs coach (2018-2022), and has impressed since taking on the top job with his native Argentina.
Like McNamara, the attacking style employed by Contepomi would fit nicely with the brand of rugby Leinster supporters crave, and like Sexton, the Doctor is a firm fan favourite. Unlike McNamara, Contepomi is out of contract after the 2027 World Cup.
And if Leinster and the IRFU’s decision-makers really wanted to wind the clock back, they could always give Joe Schmidt a ring.
Schmidt was hugely popular during his time at Leinster. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
Schmidt won two Heineken Cups, one Challenge Cup and one Pro12 during his three years as Leinster boss, and is another coach nearing the end of his contract. The New Zealander will step away from the Wallabies following the July Tests against Ireland, France and Italy.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald former Ireland boss recently ruled out any possible return to Leinster, but he still holds strong links to Ireland, with his son, Tim, working in Leinster’s finance department.
Another former Leinster boss who could enter the mix is Michael Cheika. The Australian worked at the province from 2005-2010, leading the province to their breakthrough Heineken Cup success in 2009. Since leaving Leicester Tigers last year, Cheika has been working as an assistant coach with rugby league side Sydney Roosters.
Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, Scott Robertson remains on the market after his early exit from the All Blacks job. Currently looking after the Barbarians, the former Crusaders boss will have his eyes on bigger stages and has an impressive CV. While the highly-pressured New Zealand job didn’t work out, Robertson led the Crusaders to seven consecutive Super Rugby titles.
Scott Robertson was a serial winner with the Crusaders but had a tough time with the All Blacks. Photosport / Lynne Cameron/INPHO
Photosport / Lynne Cameron/INPHO / Lynne Cameron/INPHO
Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby is another potential option who will be out of contract in 2027. The former Ireland flanker stepped up as interim head coach during Andy Farrell’s Lions sabbatical, and with Farrell staying on until 2031, Easterby will need to weigh up his options should he want to take on a head coach role.
Whatever approach they want to take, a club of Leinster’s pedigree should have no shortage of quality candidates to consider.
And then there’s the question of how Leinster (and the IRFU) want the job to look. In a de facto director of rugby position, Cullen is heavily involved in the bigger picture work at Leinster alongside week-to-week duties such as picking the team, while Lancaster and Nienaber have driven things on the training pitch, but there is an opportunity now to move to a different model.
A more traditional structure would be to move away from the senior coach approach, and have a clear head coach focused on working with the squad on the training pitch, with issues like recruitment and succession planning left to the general manager and those working in the offices at Leinster HQ.
Whatever happens, significant change is coming in the summer of 2027, as the rugby coaching merry-go-round gets another highly attractive opening.
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Who are the contenders to succeed Leo Cullen at Leinster?
THE NEWS THAT Leo Cullen will step down as Leinster head coach at the end of the 2026/27 season will have piqued the interest of many of the game’s top coaches.
Leinster is one of the most attractive jobs in rugby, given their place in Irish Rugby, budget and track record of producing Test players.
Cullen has been in the job since 2015, winning 11 trophies in his 11 years at the helm. They haven’t had the level of success they would have hoped for in Europe, but by any measure, Cullen’s are big shoes to fill.
And with his departure date now confirmed, it raises some interesting possibilities about who might step into the role.
As a starting point, Leinster might do worse than give Jacques Neinaber a new, broader remit.
The South African has been on board since 2023 as a ‘senior coach’, but Nienaber himself has stated that he runs the rugby programme. With Cullen moving on, perhaps Nienaber would fancy a shot at having even more control and taking full responsibility when it comes to things like team selection.
A two-time World Cup winner, Nienaber remains one of the most respected and in-demand coaches in the sport, and is believed to be a very popular figure within the playing group.
Nienaber has been strongly linked with a return to the Springboks when his current contract ends at the end of next season, but Cullen’s news might tempt Nienaber into a longer stay. If Leinster really wanted to make that deal happen, perhaps they could take the bold move of allowing Nienaber link up with South Africa for the World Cup window before returning to Leinster after, with one of his assistants taking the reins in his absence.
Should Leinster decide to look elsewhere, Noel McNamara would be a popular choice.
The Clare native knows the province well, having worked his way up through the schools game, winning two Leinster Schools Senior Cups with Clongowes and coaching Leinster and Ireland schools sides. He worked with some of the current group at Leinster U20s and Leinster A level, and was also Leinster Academy manager.
He’s since moved on to work with the Sharks in South Africa before his current role with Bordeaux-Begles. As attack coach, McNamara has been key to the rise of a brilliant UBB side, who won their first Champions Cup title last year and backed it up with a dominant showing against Leinster in this year’s final.
The slick, open attacking rugby employed by Bordeaux is exactly the type of game Leinster fans want to see more of from their team. However, McNamara recently agreed a new contract extension to 2029, which could complicate any move.
McNamara isn’t the only attractive option in France, and surely the Leinster decision makers will weigh up the pros and cons of having Ronan O’Gara running things at UCD.
The La Rochelle boss led his team to the Top 14 play-offs this season after a late surge, and while it was far from a vintage year for the club, his previous achievements keep him right up there among the game’s elite coaches. A two-time Champions Cup winning coach, and a constant thorn in the side of Leinster during La Rochelle’s glory years, O’Gara would relish working with such a talented group.
His status as a Munster legend might count against him with some supporters, but the competitor in O’Gara would back himself to get Leinster over the line in Europe again. The Cork man has been open about his ambitions to coach at Test level but with Andy Farrell signed on with Ireland until 2031, O’Gara might see Leinster as a more attractive option than say England, who also could be looking for a new coach after next year’s World Cup.
Stuart Lancaster has a warmer history with Leinster, and Connacht supporters will be getting chills at the very thought of losing their head coach to a team he knows so well. Like McNamara, Lancaster played a key role in the development so many of the current Leinster squad, working in tandem with Cullen in that senior coach role from 2016-2023 and helping the province to their most recent Champions Cup success (2018).
Lancaster has had a huge impact at Connacht in his first season, but with his contract running until 2027, the province will hope he isn’t thrown into the usual coaching merry-go-around that greets a World Cup year.
Perhaps the province will look to one of Lancaster’s favourite Leinster students. Johnny Sexton was central to getting the former England head coach on board at Leinster, and since retiring the former out-half has taken the first steps in his own coaching career. Andy Farrell’s respect for Sexton saw the former Leinster and Ireland captain added to the Ireland coaching team, while he also was part of Farrell’s staff on last year’s Lions tour.
Should Sexton fancy a crack at stepping up as head coach, he’d be a popular appointment with the Leinster fans, even if his lack of experience would make it a somewhat risky move – something Leinster haven’t shied away from in the past.
Another former Leinster 10 and teammate of Sexton, Felipe Contepomi, would represent a more experienced option, and on paper looks an ideal candidate. Contepomi was highly regarded during his time as Leinster backs coach (2018-2022), and has impressed since taking on the top job with his native Argentina.
Like McNamara, the attacking style employed by Contepomi would fit nicely with the brand of rugby Leinster supporters crave, and like Sexton, the Doctor is a firm fan favourite. Unlike McNamara, Contepomi is out of contract after the 2027 World Cup.
And if Leinster and the IRFU’s decision-makers really wanted to wind the clock back, they could always give Joe Schmidt a ring.
Schmidt won two Heineken Cups, one Challenge Cup and one Pro12 during his three years as Leinster boss, and is another coach nearing the end of his contract. The New Zealander will step away from the Wallabies following the July Tests against Ireland, France and Italy.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald former Ireland boss recently ruled out any possible return to Leinster, but he still holds strong links to Ireland, with his son, Tim, working in Leinster’s finance department.
Another former Leinster boss who could enter the mix is Michael Cheika. The Australian worked at the province from 2005-2010, leading the province to their breakthrough Heineken Cup success in 2009. Since leaving Leicester Tigers last year, Cheika has been working as an assistant coach with rugby league side Sydney Roosters.
Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, Scott Robertson remains on the market after his early exit from the All Blacks job. Currently looking after the Barbarians, the former Crusaders boss will have his eyes on bigger stages and has an impressive CV. While the highly-pressured New Zealand job didn’t work out, Robertson led the Crusaders to seven consecutive Super Rugby titles.
Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby is another potential option who will be out of contract in 2027. The former Ireland flanker stepped up as interim head coach during Andy Farrell’s Lions sabbatical, and with Farrell staying on until 2031, Easterby will need to weigh up his options should he want to take on a head coach role.
Whatever approach they want to take, a club of Leinster’s pedigree should have no shortage of quality candidates to consider.
And then there’s the question of how Leinster (and the IRFU) want the job to look. In a de facto director of rugby position, Cullen is heavily involved in the bigger picture work at Leinster alongside week-to-week duties such as picking the team, while Lancaster and Nienaber have driven things on the training pitch, but there is an opportunity now to move to a different model.
A more traditional structure would be to move away from the senior coach approach, and have a clear head coach focused on working with the squad on the training pitch, with issues like recruitment and succession planning left to the general manager and those working in the offices at Leinster HQ.
Whatever happens, significant change is coming in the summer of 2027, as the rugby coaching merry-go-round gets another highly attractive opening.
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