Irish Examiner view: A Munster man

 Jerry Holland, right, with former Ireland team manager Donal Lenihan.

At first glance Jerry Holland was an unlikely pathfinder for a peaceful tribe, but the genial Cork native, who passed away earlier this week, was the advance man scouting locations which became familiar to thousands of Irish people.

From Bordeaux to San Sebastian and across to Toulouse and Paris, Holland’s were the first boots on the ground as Munster and its loyal army of followers roamed Europe. As team manager, Holland’s coat buttoned up over a wide range of responsibilities, from providing baked beans to Irish players wary of French cuisine to ensuring that enormous second rows didn’t have to fold themselves into a hotel bed fit for a Peter Stringer.

It was a job that suited Holland, whose broad grin and easy manner helped him to make friends easily — and to establish valuable contacts all over the continent. It also suited the players to have him in the job. A distinguished playing career at all levels of the game gave Holland instant credibility in the Munster dressing-room, and sometimes it was needed.

When he finally stepped down as Munster manager, he told this newspaper about the challenges he’d faced, such as the time the team was driven by a Welsh bus driver who didn’t know his way around Wales. “And of course the likes of Donncha O’Callaghan, Alan Quinlan, Frankie Sheahan would be roaring ‘shambles, shambles’ on the bus,” he said.

“In fairness, unless it was serious it was taken in good humour.” A shambles on Jerry Holland’s watch? Not likely.