in a contract extension until 2028<\/a>, alongside head coach Richie Murphy. <\/p>\nHowever he will now leave Ulster, who sit third in the United Rugby Championship, at the end of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Ulster said Duffy will depart the Affidea Stadium “with our gratitude and appreciation”, and the decision was so he could move closer to his Galway-based family. <\/p>\n
He joined Ulster in 2024 from Western Force and he had previously worked with Connacht and Ireland Under-20s.<\/p>\n
Duffy, who is from Galway, said he was sad to be leaving Ulster but “this decision was the best thing for me and my family”.<\/p>\n
“My focus is now on continuing our work, keep pushing on and giving everything to have a strong end to the season,” he added.<\/p>\n
Ulster head coach Murphy had worked with Duffy since their time with Ireland’s Under-20s and said he had been “vital” to the province’s revival.<\/p>\n
“He has been important for the progression and development of our players,” Murphy added.<\/p>\n
“He is an excellent coach with wealth of experience, and I wish him and his family all the best for the future.”<\/p>\n
Rory Best, Ulster’s general manager, said he was “disappointed” to lose Duffy at the end of the season but “it is ultimately the best choice for him and his family”.<\/p>\n
“We are in a strong position to have a successful end to the season, and I know that all the coaching staff remain focused on achieving our aims,” the former Ulster and Ireland captain added.<\/p>\n
“We thank Jimmy for his dedication in the role and wish him well for the future.”<\/p>\n
Backs coach Mark Sexton and defence coach Willie Faloon will remain part of Murphy’s coaching team beyond the end of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forwards coach Jimmy Duffy will leave Ulster at the end of the season, despite a contract extension being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-546477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}