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Cardiff Blues will have their eighth coach in seven years when unknown Australian John Mulvihill is unveiled as Danny Wilson’s successor.

Mulvihill is “excited” at the challenge of stepping into the Blues hot seat and hopes to be released this week from his contract in Japan.

The 51-year-old is backs coach at Honda Heat, assisting former New Zealand scrum-half Danny Lee, who had a short stint as a player at the Dragons.

Mulvihill assisted Alan Jones, who coached the brilliant Australia team of the 1980s, and ex-England backs coach Brian Smith with the Barbarians during their 31-28 defeat to the Wallabies in Sydney last October.

He is a protege of Jones and another of Australia’s leading rugby minds in Alex Evans, who guided Cardiff RFC to a Welsh League title and was Wales’ caretaker coach at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa.

Mulvihill was an outside-half with Evans’ club Souths in Brisbane before embarking on a coaching career which has seen him have stints on the staff of the Wallabies and at Perth-based Western Force.

Overseeing the deal to bring Mulvihill to Wales is rugby agent Derwyn Jones, who manages Sam Warburton and a host of other high-profile players.

Former Wales lock Jones formed a close relationship with the highly-regarded Evans when the pair worked together at Cardiff.

Mulvihill also knows the Welsh Rugby Union’s head of rugby performance Geraint John, who is a former coach of the Australia Sevens team.

Since Dai Young left the Blues in 2011 after guiding them to Anglo-Welsh and European Challenge Cup glory, the coaching door at the Arms Park has been akin to a revolving turnstile.

Gareth Baber, Justin Burnell, Phil Davies, Paul John, Dale McIntosh and Mark Hammett have all passed through it.

John Mulvihill's coaching CV Gained experience as a head coach at Irish side Navan RFC during a five year stint with the Co. Meath club between 1998 and 2003. He returned to his homeland to coach the Gold Coast Breakers and the Queensland Reds regional academy before being lured across the Perth. Mulvihill joined the Western Force as an assistant coach to boss and former All Black John Mitchell when the franchise was formed in 2005. He is credited with unearthing mercurial Aussie talent James O'Connor when he was a 17-year-old and helped take him to Western Australia. The former pivot then resigned with a year left on his contract seeking new challenges and he was soon coaching in Japan. He went on to have stints coaching the Mitsubishi Dynaboars and Kintetsu Liners before joining Honda Heat in April, 2017.

And current coach Danny Wilson leaves to become forwards guru to Young at Aviva Premiership Wasps at the end of the season after turning down the offer of a new contract following three years in charge.

Wilson said last September he would be leaving the Blues at the end of this campaign because of a lack of clarity over the budget he would be working with next season.

Since his announcement, the Blues have been linked with a number of coaches, with former Ireland full-back and Leicester Tigers assistant coach Geordan Murphy an early contender before distancing himself from the post.

Hurricanes boss Chris Boyd was also a contender, with the New Zealander also thought to be one of the men in the running to take over the Welsh reins from Warren Gatland at the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

But Boyd has been appointed permanent successor to Jim Mallinder at Northampton Saints next season.

A deal to bring the sacked Mallinder to the Blues was on the cards but the former Sale Sharks and twice-capped England full-back pulled out of it with financial issues thought to be the stumbling block.

So they turned to Mulvihill with Blues chief executive Richard Holland having jetted to Dubai for talks with the Queenslander.

Mulvihill has a reputation in Australia and Japan for developing players and working on their skills.