IT’S NOT WORKING
Reds’ loss of identity demands a revamp
YOU picture the Munster brains trust having a Zoom conference on Monday morning, poring over the bloody entrails of their latest disembowelling by Leinster. Furrowed eyebrows, heavy sighs and rueful head shakes abound as they search for solutions, until eventually a voice pops up: ‘Is there anything to be said for signing another South African?’
That is the level of farce we have descended to. The recruitment of Springbok second row Jason Jenkins was almost certainly sorted before Saturday’s Pro14 final flop against their greatest rivals but the timing and optics of yesterday’s announcement were horrendous.
What is the reason for this Munster obsession with South Africa, what is it based upon, why is it condoned? Because it clearly isn’t working. Munster success (now a distant memory relegated to the status of ‘happier times’ bedside stories for disillusioned young supporters) has no significant South African legacy.
Trevor Halstead had a key role in the 2006 European Cup triumph but that’s it. There has been a steady stream of South Africans into Munster Rugby in the last 15 years encompassing heavyweights (Jean De Villiers, BJ Botha, Damien de Allende), solid journeymen (Justin Melck, Chris Cloete, Jean Kleyn, Arno Botha) and even cult figures (CJ Stander) and they have won exactly nothing. Throw in the disastrous signing of convicted doper Gerbrandt Grobler and Munster’s South Africa story (Halstead aside) has been woefully short on happy endings.
And that’s just the players; the coaching impact is just as unfulfilling. Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber threw some positive shapes but also failed to deliver silverware, paid lip service to their Munster ‘commitment’ and then hightailed it back home. Their neat offload to another South African coaching duo – Johann van Graan and JP Ferreira – has led to another extended period of high aspiration and low achievement. Enough is enough. With the passing of each fallow year since their last trophy (the 2011 Magners League), Munster’s sense of identity and coherency is being steadily eroded. Last Saturday, Leinster started 14 players who had rugby roots within the province and they played like it. Meanwhile, Munster fielded a mish-mash of imports and cast-offs and had more South Africans than Limerickmen in their line-up.
While the evidence pointed to Leinster having the more talented and established set-up going into the game, it was safe to expect Munster would show up with a raw fury honed by years of envy and regret. Instead, bar a typically ferocious performance by Skibbereen’s Gavin Coombes, Munster appeared to meekly accept their familiar fate.
They can bleat on about the population and school feeder system advantages resident in the capital but Munster stand indicted for not maximising their own pathways.
Instead, they consistently look outside the province and the recruitment of tighthead Keynan Knox from South Africa’s underage system in 2017 was a low point. We are still waiting for Knox to break through.
But the killer is, for all the incoherency, there is young, local, talent in the province waiting to be let loose and we thought the penny had dropped with Van Graan when he belatedly started backing it last autumn.
Suddenly, there was a vitality about the team again and the supporters and grassroots were energised by the sense of being properly represented. Coombes, Craig Casey, Ben Healy, Jack Crowley, Jack O’Sullivan, John Hodnett and Thomas Ahern are tyros to build a team around but instead of placing faith in the prodigiously talented but underexposed Ahern following the retirement of Billy Holland, Munster go and sign a South African second row no-one has heard of.
How did the IRFU and David Nucifora sanction this?
Munster are now a dysfunctional entity. Van Graan seems out of sync with his backroom team and management as a whole seem out of sync with the players and their core support.
Meanwhile, homegrown generational talents like Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony and Keith Earls are missing out on the success their abilities merit.
A roots-driven overhaul is now urgently needed because there is a way out for Munster — and it is not to be found in South Africa.