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In a shock announcement on Monday the German Rugby Union (DRV) confirmed the appointment of Pablo Lemoine as new Head Coach of the national senior men’s team. The 42-year-old leaves his post as Director of High Performance at the Uruguayan Rugby Union (URU) to return to the coaching ranks under the auspices of Germany’s new Director of Rugby – Paul Healy.
One of Uruguay’s most well-known players after more than a decade as a professional in Europe, Lemoine played in two World Cups for his country and after retiring as a player in 2012 he took over the reigns as Head Coach of Los Teros. He held that position until the appointment of Esteban Meneses in December 2015, shifting to a High Performance role to oversee all of Uruguay’s representative rugby. He now takes up his first overseas coaching role.
Healy also has considerable ties to the Americas, having coached Chile for 18 months beginning in mid-2014. A controversial ending to that role saw him in a short-term consulting role with German club TV Pforzheim, who he helped win a national title, before working with the Brazilian Rugby Union (CBRu) for over a year as High Performance Manager.
The circumstances are not ideal for Healy and Lemoine, who take over a program in severe turmoil following a breakdown in communications between the DRV and the Wild Rugby Academy that saw the majority of the country’s best players go on strike for their final November tour match against Chile. A resolution to that conflict has not been made resulting in the removal of Kobus Potgieter as Head Coach and it now appears Germany will have to build an entirely new team from scratch for the upcoming Rugby Europe Championship.
To make matters worse, the fast-approaching tournament also counts as a World Cup Qualifier, all but throwing Germany’s chances of earning a spot in Japan 2019 out the window. Healy and Lemoine are initially on short-term deals that will see their contracts reviewed following the Championship in co-operation with World Rugby, though the Union says it hopes to retain them for a longer duration.
