The two longest-serving members of Edinburgh's management succumbed to the inevitable yesterday when head coach Michael Bradley was effectively dismissed while Billy McGinty, the defence coach, resigned.
The decisions follow the latest dreadful performance by last season's Heineken Cup semi-finalists as they were drubbed by a sub-strength Munster side in Bradley's native Cork on Saturday, their eighth consecutive defeat. A statement made it clear that Bradley had been told to go, stating he "will not have his contract renewed at the end of this season".
Mark Dodson, the SRU's chief executive, has now had the job of telling all three of the professional head coaches who were in place when he was appointed 18 months ago that their time was up.
He thanked Bradley and McGinty for their efforts but made clear his dissatisfaction, saying: "This season's results have been below the standards expected by the club and its fans and we believe the time is right to begin the search for a fresh coaching team."
Positive throughout an appalling season, Bradley, who led Edinburgh to the greatest achievement in the history of Scotland's professional teams when they reached the last four of the Heineken Cup last term, showed dignity in thanking all involved with the club for their support. He will stay in post until the end of the season and voiced his determination to play a part in starting the process of turning things around.
"I am very disappointed by the run of results and will put everything into the remainder of the season to help the club build for a brighter future," Bradley said.
McGinty has struggled to bring defensive solidity to the team, last year's Heineken Cup run having been much more down to attacking flair than an ability to keep opponents at bay, but said he had enjoyed his time with the club and wished Edinburgh well.
Neil Back, the forwards coach brought in last summer on a two-year contract, will remain in post.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article