‘A great fit’: Ian Madigan says Leinster should look no further than Felipe Contepomi

Ian Madigan, the former Leinster outhalf turned respected pundit, has endorsed Felipe Contepomi as a successor to Leo Cullen after the latter steps aside from his role as the province’s head coach at the end of the season. Noting Contepomi’s “exciting” style of play is in keeping with “the Leinster way and the Leinster brand”, Madigan says: “What he’s done with Argentina has been really impressive.”Speaking in his capacity as a pundit with Premier Sports at the launch of their URC and Champions Cup coverage, Madigan added: “I’d be slow to measure him too harshly on Argentina’s recent results.”Argentina have only won three of their last 11 Tests, and two of those were against Wales. . Citing the “logistical nightmare” of drawing upon players from all over the world, Madigan noted that Los Pumas generally improve from slow starts in international windows.READ MORE“But what I’d expect with Felipe is that there’s a grand plan in place and I think they’ll still be peaking come the World Cup. Even seeing them against Australia at the weekend, that was a good result against a side that’s very much on the way up,” added Madigan of the 28-28 draw against Australia in Mendoza. Madigan, Leinster’s fourth highest points scorer, also said of the man who is second in that list: “He understands the ethos of the club. He’d have a very good understanding of the school system and the academy system, and a very good relationship with the likes of Andy Farrell, Johnny Sexton and Sean O’Brien. So, he certainly ticks a lot of boxes.“The negatives would obviously be it (coaching Argentina) is going to take him up past the World Cup. So, you’re looking at nearly December by the time he’d be coming in but there’s enough quality within the Leinster setup for people to step up and fill that void and then look to get him back for probably round one or two of the Champions Cup.“But when I heard the murmurs, my initial reaction was very positive. I thought ‘that would be a great fit’.”The upcoming season will be Leo Cullen's 12th and final one as Leinster head coach. Photograph: Grace Halton/Inpho In the interim, this will be Cullen’s 12th and last season at the helm. Sport is littered with examples of such a scenario leading to a slippage in standards. “It definitely is a concern,” admitted Madigan. “I think the solution to that problem is it’s got to be player-led. It can’t be Leo driving and defining standards and telling people they aren’t scraping the plates properly or not picking up their tape or turning up late to meetings. That has to be led by the likes of Hugo Keenan and Caelan Doris. “These guys are so hungry to win and for Leinster to be successful I’d expect them to step up to the plate. They’ve seen that Leo’s largely devoted his whole adult life to the club. I think that in itself is going to be a real driver for Leinster this year. And I think the players are smart enough now to know that the way you achieve those goals of winning trophies is by setting those standards on a daily basis. That’s always been the Leinster way.”In addition to RG Snyman being sidelined, Rieko Ioane and Rabah Slimani have moved on, as has all-time leading try scorer James Lowe. With no incoming players apart from the returning Joey Carbery and Peter Dooley, the squad is lacking some overseas stardust. Three players have also headed west to Connacht, with Ciarán Frawley and Will Connors reuniting with Stuart Lancaster. Luke McGrath’s departure to Perpignan has “left a huge void” at scrumhalf, which Madigan believes is “the most important player in that Leinster system”.The “chasing pack” as understudy to Jamison Gibson-Park is led by Fintan Gunne, with Cormac Foley and third-year academy scrumhalf Oliver Coffey also in the mix to establish themselves as first-choice back-up. “Once you’re in that position, it opens up other opportunities for you to go on to the national setup. So we could potentially see a bolter there coming out of that Leinster team.“But if that doesn’t work out for Leinster and none of those guys step up to the mark, that is a significant problem for them. I expect that they will. But that’s an area I’ll be watching so closely.”