Leinster have reportedly chosen a surprise candidate to replace Leo Cullen as head coach next season, with official confirmation expected in mid-November.

Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi had been heavily touted by some Irish media as the person who would take over from Cullen, who announced at the end of last season that the 2026/27 campaign would be his 12th and last in charge of the reigning United Rugby Championship.

However, Contepomi’s Rugby World Cup commitments with the Pumas always looked a potential deal breaker and that has turned out to be the case, according to the Irish edition of The Sunday Times.

“Leinster had to make a decision earlier than I was able to make a decision myself,” explained Contepomi, who wouldn’t have been able to take over until November 2027 after the tournament in Australia.

Beaten a series of high-profile names to the Leinster job…

That was too late for Leinster to wait and the Irish province have instead plumped for Noel McNamara, the Bordeaux attack coach whose only experience as a head coach at professional adult level was with Leinster A while he was the club’s academy manager.

McNamara succeeding Cullen would be a huge coup for the 43-year-old with a GAA background. He only accidentally fell into rugby coaching as a teacher when invited to take over the U13s at Glenstal Abbey, a school in Co Limerick, but his ascent has been rapid and he has now beaten a series of high-profile names to the Leinster job.

They include ex-All Blacks boss Scott Robertson and former Springbok boss Jacques Nienaber, who is current Leinster senior coach. The South African would have seemed a strong in-house contender to take over from Cullen but he has been overlooked for promotion.

Stuart Lancaster, whom Nienaber succeeded as senior coach in Dublin in 2023, ruled himself out of the running at an early stage, declaring himself happy at Connacht, while La Rochelle boss Ronan O’Gara admitted last week he was disappointed to not even get a phone call from Leinster over the Cullen vacancy despite agreeing a contract extension with his French club.

McNamara is in his fourth season at Bordeaux, where he is working with star players such as Matthieu Jalibert, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Maxime Lucu. He joined in July 2023 and quickly enriched their attack. In his first season in Top 14, they scored 124 tries, up from 63 the previous year, and they have since won back-to-back Investec Champions Cup titles.

Having moved to Clongowes, the Co Kildare school, McNamara went on to become Leinster academy manager, and he moved from there to guiding the Ireland U20s to a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2019. After that, he coached at North Harbour in New Zealand and the Sharks in Durban, where he linked up with Yannick Bru, his current boss at Bordeaux,

The Sunday Times reported: “The 43-year-old from County Clare is currently attack coach with the double European champions Union Bordeaux-Bègles.

“While he signed a three-year contract extension with Bordeaux in May, Leinster have apparently obtained the release of a coach who helped to mastermind their humiliation in last season’s Champions Cup final in Bilbao.

“According to sources, an unveiling is expected mid-month, when both Leinster and Bordeaux have breaks in their respective domestic playing schedules.”

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.

The report also speculated that McNamara would now become a potential candidate to take over the Ireland job from Andy Farrell, as IRFU high performance boss David Humphreys would have assisted Leinster in the decision to bring the coach in from France.

“Humphreys clearly views McNamara as a potential successor to the Ireland head coach Andy Farrell, who is contracted until the end of the 2031 World Cup. Five seasons at Leinster – bulk supplier to the national team – would make for a natural transition to the Ireland job.

“McNamara already has a strong connection to the club and a close understanding of its talent pathway. He also has a good relationship with Cullen, who surely gave him every recommendation.”