By John Fallon

It remains to be seen if Colm Tucker throws his hat into the ring to become the 11th head coach of Connacht in the professional era, and the Limerick native was remaining coy when asked about it in South Africa this week.

The scrum and contact coach will take charge for a sixth time when Connacht meet the Lions in Johannesburg tomorrow (3pm), and he will remain interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

“My focus is on the Lions and not beyond that, not beyond that, it’s too important a game so that’s where all my energy is going into,” said Tucker.

Connacht have three games left and a win against the Lions on Saturday would keep their outside hopes of a knockout spot alive as they complete their campaign at home to Edinburgh and away to Zebre.

It would certainly enhance Tucker’s candidacy enormously, should he decide to go for the top job, if he was to guide them into the knockout stages and Champions Cup qualification.

Only twice have Connacht promoted from within when choosing their 10 head coaches in the professional era, and it remains to be seen if Tucker becomes the third internal appointment to the top job.

He has been in charge now on an interim basis for five matches, four of which have ended in defeat, but all the losses have been by six points or less in high-scoring games.

Tucker, who joined Connacht in 2015 as a coach development officer and held various other roles before moving into the main set-up in 2021 as defence coach, said he and the rest of the travelling group only became aware of confirmation of Wilkins’ departure when they arrived in South Africa on Tuesday last week to prepare for the game against the Stormers.

“Yeah, just basically as we landed in Africa,” said Tucker during Connacht weekly’s media briefing from Cape Town, where they will be based until today before heading to Johannesburg.

It’s a time of change at the Sportsground with attack coach Mark Sexton heading to Ulster, and defence coach Scott Fardy also departing.

It was announced last month that Australian Rod Seib will be arriving in the summer from the Brumbies as a ‘senior assistant coach’ with responsibility for attack; while Billy Millard is also returning to the province in the new role of General Manager of Performance.

It’s familiar territory for Connacht. Seven of the ten previous occupants of the top job in the professional era in Connacht, including three of the last four, departed before the end of their contract.

Pictured: Finlay Bealham in action against Racing 92 in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup earlier this month. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.