Today’s announcement that Denis Leamy is to retire due to a hip injury is yet another punch in the guts for Munster followers.
They must never have envisaged their bitter rivals, Leinster, equaling and then surpassing their haul of two Heineken Cup victories within four years of their last victory in Cardiff in 2008.
The recent retirements of Mick O’Driscoll, Jerry Flannery, David Wallace and John Hayes to add to last year’s similar announcements from Alan Quinlan and Ian Dowling as well as the departures of Tomás O’Leary, Dennis Fogarty, and Lifeimi Mafi has seen the side lose a mass of experience from its core. Only Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell remain.
Much has been written elsewhere about the great job that departing coach Tony McGahan has done in blooding new players, but Munster’s recent stuffing at the hands of the Ospreys in the Rabo Pro12 semi-final will have left incoming coach, Rob Penney, in no doubt that he has a massive rebuilding job on his hands.
Hopefully Munster’s demanding following also realise this, give him some space, and accept that Heineken Cup final appearances and victories are off the menu for longer than they had hoped for.
Anthony Foley may have been disappointed to have missed out on the head coaching role, but he has nowhere near enough experience, nor the skill set required to run a broom through the club a la Matt Williams, and rebuild as required. Rob Penney’s background in business, along with spending time in charge of the Canterbury provincial academy suggests that he is more suited. He was the Crusaders assistant coach in 2005 and won four ITM Cups in charge of Canterbury between 2008 and 2011.
Tony McGahan may have promised change when he took over from Declan Kidney in 2008, but in truth he did little on this front until they were knocked out of last year’s Heineken Cup at the group stages. Were it not for their “premature” exit last year, Conor Murray would not have made his late run to bolt into Ireland’s 2011 World Cup squad. McGahan’s remedial work on Munster’s academy, badly neglected during Kidney’s tenure, is widely acknowledged and while still regarded as being light years behind Leinster and Ulster’s, is beginning to bare fruit.
If the need for a rebuild wasn’t obvious after Leinster handed Munster their arses on a plate in Croke Park on the second of May, 2009, it should have been more than apparent after the shut out in the RDS six months later. It’s hard to blame McGahan for being wary of upsetting a successful and experienced but ageing dressing room as, despite appearances, he was only in his mid-thirties when appointed in 2008.
Penney is in his late forties, looks like an old sea dog and has a stare that would make Hannibal Lecter think twice before attempting to eat his wife. He’s unlikely to be intimidated by O’Gara and O’Connell.
Teams decline, but great clubs don’t. Munster will be back.
“We hung on to them lads for too long” said one Munster fan to me in a pub in Richmond in the aftermath of last Saturday’s wonderful Heineken Cup final. “Yep,” I said “It’s called getting old for a reason.”
Cathal
Guest
A strong Munster is of course a benefit to Irish rugby so I hope they make a come back sooner rather than later even if I'm not a Munster follower. While I can't speak to the quality of the players if you take a look at the various Irish under-age squads at the minute it makes for depressing reading from a Munster perspective. They are Leinster dominated, but Ulster representation is now greater than that of Munster who have a approx the same number of players as Connacht in the squad! So taking into account: 1) recent retirements through injury; 2) the squad age-profile and quality for the first 15; 3) the imminent non irish-qualified player limits being introduced from IRFU. I'm asking myself can we really expect to see Munster return to the top in Europe / PRO12 within the next 4/5 years? Unless they quickly un-earth a goldmine of talented youth I would say not really although I wish them luck.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
The density in European club rugby is at a record high and we have to get used to having some big clubs (like Munster) not making the HC QF or semis, or Rabo pro 12/Top14/aviva champ finals every year. When you look at next year HC participants you realise how tough it is to finish first in a pool that may have Leinster, Clermont,Scarlets and Montpellier in or Toulouse, Ulster,Ospreys and Racing. No shame if Munster struggle the next couple of years, they will be back. European rugby need them 1 : Leinster, Toulouse, Biarritz, Munster, Cardiff, Northampton 2 : Clermont, Ulster, Leicester, Harlequins, Toulon, Edimbourg 3 : Ospreys, Scarlets, Glasgow, Saracens, Connacht, Sale 4 : Trévise, Castres, Racing, Montpellier, Aironi, Exeter
Argyle
Roar Guru
Hi Dara, great to see an article on Munster. I agree that Munster will be back, in time. Paul and ROG will be vital in the re—build. The two Donnacha,s go well and the squad will get better in time. I think it was wise not to make Axel coach yet, Rob Penny will no doubt know a few kiwi,s who would play for Munster. I don,t expect much for the next couple of years but the frame work is there. Come'on Munster!