MIKE Ruddock could be lining up a return to Wales in a coaching role for the first time since the fall-out from the Grand Slam season of 2005.

Ruddock resigned from his job as director of rugby at Worcester two weeks ago after they were relegated from the Premiership because he felt it was the honourable thing to do.

He had intended taking up a coaching role with a club in Dublin and returning to Ireland where he had previously coached Bective Rangers and Leinster, with his two sons also in the Leinster squad and his wife from the Irish capital as well.

But complications over his daughter’s schooling have ruled that out for at least a year, so Ruddock is now eyeing a possible return to his native Wales.

He previously coached home club Blaina, Cross Keys and Ebbw Vale before being the first coach of Newport Gwent Dragons.

“I have decided to postpone my intended work option in Dublin and am looking around in Wales and England for other possible options,” he said.

Ruddock doesn’t believe it would be a problem taking up the coaching reins again in Wales after the acrimonious way he left the national job.

“All that has gone now. I love Wales, I’ve still got a house in the Mumbles so if I came back it would be a pretty easy adjustment. That’s the life of a rugby coach,” he said.

“It’s something I’ve done in the past, I lived in Ireland for two different spells, for example, when I was with Bective and then Leinster, and I came back to Wales after that.”

After his spell with Dragons, Ruddock moved to the top job with Wales and led them to a spectacular Grand Slam triumph, their first for 27 years, before it all fell apart and he decided to quit.