THE HERALD REPORTS

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer March 29 2006

Sean Lineen, the new Glasgow Warriors head coach, was rejected for the same post at Edinburgh Gunners, it was revealed last night.
However, Gordon McKie, the SRU's chief executive, denied that it was a case of deciding that what was good enough for one of the country's professional teams was not good enough for the other.
He had confirmed what was revealed in The Herald yesterday that Lineen replaces Hugh Campbell. McKie also disclosed that none of a dozen candidates for the Gunners job, Lineen among them, had been deemed capable of taking it on.
"It's no secret that Sean applied for the Edinburgh job. We bench-marked him against the other candidates and he did not meet the criteria we set," he said. "We set a number of key criteria against which the candidates were measured. Firstly experience of being a head coach, secondly having tasted success, thirdly being prepared to support the objective of growing home-based talent and also to support the aims of Scotland having a winning international team. We also have to be mindful that the individual must also have the right inter-personal skills to deal with a very mature and settled squad. All things considered the applicants did not meet the necessary criteria."
The Gunners post, to replace caretaker coach Todd Blackadder, will now be readvertised.
Lineen knows the Warriors players well and has an understanding of what is required to improve a struggling set-up, but what the SRU is clearly looking for in the capital is an established top quality coach capable of turning an improving side into one capable of winning trophies.
That leaves Steve Bates, the Border Reivers coach, who has made it clear he has not applied for a move to Murrayfield, as the one individual within the domestic professional game who appears to have the necessary qualifications to take charge of the Gunners.
Effectively ruled out are Iain Paxton, the Scotland under-21 coach, Peter Wright, his counterpart with the under-19s, and Phil Smith, the Gunners' backs coach who, like Lineen, were all interviewed for the job. Carl Hogg, the Gunners' forwards coach, is meanwhile set to join Bryan Redpath in the back-room team at Gloucester.
Meantime at Glasgow, Lineen – whose new responsibilities are such that he does not expect to continue his involvement within the international set-up – said he will keep together the rest of the Warriors coaching team: Shade Munro (forwards), Gary Mercer (defence) and Mark Bitcom (fitness).
Campbell will be retained on the SRU staff in a specialist coaching capacity.

This article was posted on 29-Mar-2006, 07:24 by Hugh Barrow.