Andrew Goodman might have come from the other side of the world but he knew exactly what and where he was landing. Seldom does a coach parachute into a new team for a new season and rediscover the familiarity of old friends. The former centre’s arrival has been a kind of a homecoming.
Goodman, who came to Dublin 10 years ago, became a teacher and taught as well as played with Tasman and James Lowe, who, he says “as you know is full of noise and energy”.
He lined out for Leinster for an injury-hit couple of seasons from 2010, when both Johnny Sexton and Leo Cullen were still players, while several others now in the team were fresh faces in the academy.
The teacher then became a Tasman and Crusaders coach. A decade on, he may be unfamiliar to some of the players, but the players are not foreign to him.
“Leo just moved from captain up to the main chair,” says Goodman. “The younger boys who were in the academy, when I was a player, are senior players in the squad leading the group around the field.
“It’s been cool to see that growth. Obviously, the way Leinster and Ireland have been playing over the last few years, I have been keeping a close eye on the lads I know well.”
His Irish connections are more dispersed than just Leinster. At Crusaders he worked alongside Ronan O’Gara, who spent a couple of seasons as assistant coach before moving on to European success in France as head coach with La Rochelle.
O’Gara experienced excellent results in his first season in Christchurch, with the Crusaders winning a ninth Super Rugby title, before defending the title in the 2019 season, securing it for a record 10th time in his final match as part of the staff.
Like O’Gara, Goodman comes to Ireland understanding the nature of the each- way transaction. He will give a little bit of New Zealand to Leinster and take a little bit of Ireland home with him.
“I have two young lads, three and five, and a pregnant wife, so it was a big flight, and a big decision to leave the Crusaders,” he says. “It was one I had to think over for a long time. Leo was pretty persistent on the phone, but I let the Crusaders know straight away on the first phone call, and they were very supportive and kind of understood the reasons why I would seriously consider coming back to here.
“At the stage I’m at in my coaching career, having been involved with Tasman and the Crusaders and the way they play, I saw it as an opportunity, selfishly, for me to come over here and grow as a coach as well, to learn off some amazing coaches.
“I think Stu [Lancaster] has done fantastic things for the club, so I was really interested to see the way he operates and runs the Leinster programme. I got on well with Leo when I was here and was excited to see that Seánie [O’Brien] was coming back as well, so there was lots of positives. Yeah, decided to come over here, learn and add a bit of my stuff as well.”
In New Zealand, Goodman worked under former All Black Leon McDonald, who was an “amazing” mentor. He will bring a different influence to that of Felipe Contepomi, who left to take up a place with former Leinster coach Michael Cheika with Argentina.
This week Leinster face Treviso with more of the frontline players certain to be brought back into the squad after last week’s uneven win over Zebre in Parma. The mood in the Italian camp was Leinster were lucky to escape after a furious comeback in Stadio Lanfranchi.
Five tries later and the visitors breathed a sigh of relief leaving with the 33-29 win. But there is more similarity than contrast between how Crusaders coach and prepare their players and Leinster’s process.
“There’s little differences in the way the week is run, how the trainings are run, which has been refreshing for me to come over here and see another style of doing things,” he says.
“There are similarities in the squad depth and the competitiveness of the squad, I think, is strong in both set ups. The players’ ability to come in here and hold each other accountable, high standards would be another one that is common in both set ups.”
That would have been evident in this week’s video review. Game one but few will remember how Leinster earned their first five points of this year’s championship.
“Yeah,” he says. “Honest conversations needed to be had.” The bromance with Leinster continues to be rock solid. But the honeymoon over.
