Johne Murphy believes Richie Murphy has earned the right to be given the Ulster job on a permanent basis beyond this summer.
The Ireland U20 boss has been taking interim charge of Ulster since March, following the departure of Dan McFarland in February.
In six games in charge, Murphy has had a mixed return of three wins and three defeats, with the caveat that he was thrown in at the deep end; his first two games brought him on a tour of South Africa, before two more away trips to France in the Challenge Cup.
Back-to-back home wins over Cardiff and Benetton have steadied the ship, in spite of a large injury list, and with three games to go the province are seventh in the BKT United Rugby Championship, with play-off rugby and Champions Cup qualification in their sights.
"I think that [off-field negativity] can all be helped by taking away any lack of knowledge around what their future is, put stability there, and going 'this is what's going to happen, this is who the head coach will be, this is who his defence coach will be', and have it very clear."
Murphy, who is currently head coach of Naas RFC in the Energia All-Ireland League, also believes an Irish appointment would send out a good message from the IRFU.
"Having two young Irish coaches on the pod here, there's an opportunity to go, 'here's an Irish homegrown coaching ticket going into Ulster, give it a go, here's what you're going to be given to try and develop that, and give it a good old rattle'," he added.
"I think that's something that, in my opinion, should happen.
"Most importantly from a financial and development perspective, being in the Champions Cup is huge. They probably need to get maybe six or seven points out of the last three games, and if they can get that then they have a chance.
"Knockout rugby and Champions Cup rugby, and from where they were and what's gone on, it would be a huge result for them."
Murphy was joined on the podcast by Cork Constitution head coach Jonny Holland.
And the ex-Munster 10 says making an early appointment would also ensure the province don't fall behind when it comes to player recruitment.
"You're not going to sign people if we don't know if Richie is in the job or not," Holland said.
"He's well good enough to do that, he's an Irish coach, he knows the system, he's been with Ireland, he's been around the place, he's taken the Irish 20s.
"Maybe they're trying to give him a Director of Rugby [to work with], you'd wonder are they trying to bring someone in but also keep Richie. Maybe that would be a good idea, to give him some support, to help him out with some of the logistical issues that you have to deal with as well as coaching the actual team. It's a lot of work.
"Players who are going to be signing will be wondering who is in charge. You won't get a lot of certainty from it. You do need to get certainty."
Ulster welcome Rob Herring, Stewart Moore, Jacob Stockdale and Dave Shanahan back from injury this week, with the province looking for a third win in a row as they travel to face the Scarlets on Saturday.
In a huge blow, however, James Hume's significant knee injury has been confirmed as a torn anterior cruciate ligament, with the Ireland international set for surgery this month.
With just six points separating the Stormers in fifth from the Lions in 11th, a trip to the struggling Welsh side represents a big opportunity to bank some points.
And Holland says a bonus-point win is vital, ahead of two difficult Interpros against Leinster and Munster in their final two games.
"Ulster have to go to Scarlets and get the maximum," he said.
"There has to be some sort of buffer going into the two interpro games. Chances are they win one of them, they won't win both.
"They have to win, and they have to get momentum in that win at Scarlets away, otherwise it's going to be high pressure for group with new management.
"They'll back themselves, but when the pressure comes on you don't have a lot of foundations laid for answering them. Away to Scarlets is going to have to be a huge one for them."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
