Ronan O'Gara: Munster is no easy fix but they've one chance now to get it right
IT TAKES all sorts. Once I arrived back to Munster pre-season with a bleached head of hair. I’d gone mad in Greece, obviously.
We were treated to a horrible fitness session on the track at the Mardyke.
Animal stuff.
Ten 400 metre runs followed by 10 more at 300 metres. We survived, and I anticipated a pat on the head from manager Jerry Holland or maybe Niall O’Donovan, our forwards coach. ‘Great session, Rog, you hung in there, good to see…’ That sort of thing.
More fool me. Instead Jerry stared at me: “By the next session, have that hair gone…”
No debate. Didn’t bat an eyelid. Old school.
Niall O’s there as Munster manager now, and his rugby acumen is still hugely beneficial to the set-up. He’s been there and understands Munster. Anthony Foley too. But things change, the game keeps evolving, as do the players’ needs and demands.
In confirming they are hiring a Director of Rugby for the first time, Munster are making a statement on their future as much as an admission of failings in the past. The appointment is absolutely critical to get right. There’s only one go at this. You mess with the foundations and the whole thing collapses in on itself.
The appointment will be responsible for pulling together all the layers and strands of Munster Rugby — on and off the pitch — for the future. You can’t jettison Niall O’Donovan or Anthony Foley because they understand the Munster culture better than anyone, and if the province loses that, the race is run.
But the new position is a big, big role. People outside the bubble realise Munster needs help. If it’s not quite a salvage operation, there has to be a recognition they are a long way off where Munster needs to be — and where they have stated in policy they want to be. When you’re in reverse, you need to halt the slide, then get a bit of neutral ground before you look up again.
Munster isn’t an easy fix, because there are issues at all levels. But they are not irretrievably far off.
The culture remains but the standards and some values have slipped. However some serious planning and recruitment could do a lot. Munster need four or five players if they are serious, because the benchmark is still winning in Europe — not getting out of their pool.
There’s a 10-year anniversary trip of the 2006 Heineken Cup victory planned for the start of June in Spain. There’s a lot of excitement about it, but a lot of revisionism too about that era. People forget it took six years to reach the holy grail. Things take time. It was an unbelievably player-driven culture in those days and because I have little connection with the current dressing room I can’t say for sure if that is or isn’t the case.
Some of them still believe it to be a huge honour playing for Munster. Not all of them, mind. Hence the importance of not diluting the indigenous influence when recruiting. You have to have homegrown players and if it’s a 50-50 decision on players, you must go for the local lad. You have some lads in Munster now who wouldn’t be getting games in other provinces.
Nostalgia always comes easy when we hark back to how things used to be, but go back 10 to 15 years ago, and there wasn’t a team like Munster in the world. People queueing overnight for tickets, and the phenomenal buzz of representing and being the embodiment of that passion. Anyone south of Dublin was planning their weekends around Munster’s European Cup games. If this director of rugby appointment hits the bullseye and they get the structure right off the pitch, things are nearly easier to fix on it.
The crowds will come back. But you can see their point of view at the moment. There is nothing to get them off their seat — and I’m talking the one in their sitting room, because a lot of them have stopped going to Thomond Park.
The relationship between Anthony Foley and the director of rugby will be fundamental to progress. The director will have overarching policy and planning responsibility for a lot of things, a la David Nucifora with the IRFU. He will be in charge of hiring and firing, recruitment, succession planning and creating a successful management environment. He will drive the business side of the professional game with the chief executive and deliver the one-centre strategy for Limerick in rugby terms. I don’t know how much input into tactics or a general game plan he would have, but he must work hand in glove with Foley. Nucifora and Joe Schmidt worked together at the Auckland Blues. There was obviously chemistry there. That must exist with Axel.
Ulster developed the model from David Humphreys and that has been enhanced with the experience of Les Kiss. An all-Irish coaching set-up in Munster — minus Andy Farrell — is encouraging but must be contextualised against their inexperience. If you are to be competing against the best clubs in Europe, a wise owl helps.
Maybe I had a different view in my playing days regarding an indigenous coaching ticket. In fact I had. But now I better understand the benefit of a wellspring of different ideas.
Anthony Foley’s contract extension of one-year has less to do with him and more with the fact that Munster don’t know yet who they are getting as director of rugby. The new man will potentially sign a three-year deal and it’s essential himself and Axel have a spark — if they don’t, it’s not going to work, and one of them is going to get the road.
There are some good people on the Professional Game Board in Munster and they must be heard. Munster must go for the best in the world, someone who will set cutting-edge standards. They must get this right.
It’s that important (to me), that the final round of the Six Nations is a secondary consideration this week. Nonetheless, Scotland in Dublin tomorrow is a seriously interesting and dangerous proposition for Joe Schmidt. Credit must go to Vern Cotter and the Scotland players for the way they are performing. Where once they were dull and sparkless, now they are putting 30 points on France and backing up what they did at the World Cup.
Beat them tomorrow and a lot of Ireland supporters will shrug their shoulders. Lose and it brings a whole heap of trouble aboard and robs the squad of momentum ahead of the summer tour to South Africa.
Believe me, this is a bit of a game.
