Munster’s new man must be given time

At a time of year when things should be slowing down, last week proved one of the busiest for those charged with the responsibility of running the game in Munster.

While the powers that be in Leinster and Ulster have only one thing on their minds — winning the Heineken Cup at Twickenham — their southern counterparts are doing everything to ensure it won’t be long before Munster will be gracing that exalted stage again.

How long it will take to scale those heights is open to conjecture but it is difficult to escape the fact that Munster’s success over the last decade was founded on a collection of extraordinarily talented, home-grown men, four of whom bid farewell to the game in Thomond Park last Saturday night.