Munster can buy smart if they can’t buy big
Munster got the least worst conclusion to their season, and credit to them for finishing with 10 points out of a possible 10. But the notion that this sort of slump can never happen again is a stupid thing to say. Of course, it can happen again if lessons aren’t learned.
You got to anticipate big learnings from this campaign. The influences from management will be crucial next season. With no marquee signing lined up, solutions must come from within.
In recruitment terms, the box office signing isn’t coming. All the best players are already signed up, with deals done. It was unusual that a big name like Mike Phillips went from Racing to Sale so late in the day. That kind of business gets done in November even if nothing gets put in contract for a few months. A lot of the French clubs start poring over their budgets and their targets pre-Christmas. In January, you bulk up the squad numbers. It’s funny, we are preparing for Racing’s Champions Cup final against Saracens tomorrow, but a number of other Top 14 clubs are regurgitating bits of business to grab a little filler publicity to sell season-tickets for 2017.
In Munster, they’d be bringing in a marquee out-half if they could, to help Johnny Holland and the teenager Bill Johnson. If Ruan Pienaar wasn’t at Ulster, they might also be looking at a scrum-half to get them through the games Conor Murray won’t be available for next season.
But before that, some serious reflection and soul-searching should put priorities in the proper order. The global rugby market is a smaller community now and Johann Erasmus wouldn’t be as sharp as I believe he is if he hasn’t already identified a couple of under-the-radar South Africans to bring to Ireland next season — not least with the attraction of the euro against the rand at the moment.
Clearly Munster is not the draw it was a decade ago, hence the importance of Erasmus in tapping into the reservoir of talent in South Africa.
The playing group and the support has always been the big attraction for players coming to Cork and Limerick. There have been some questionable signings, but to be balanced about it, Munster haven’t had the best of luck with the likes of Tyler Bleyendaal, who I have seen playing in the flesh and is a proper player. It’s very hard to show anything when he is crippled with injury — a quad problem will compromise his bread and butter kicking skills as a ten. He has the structural engine of a very good player — the legs, the frame, he is a proper athlete.
But you must also look at the contract awarded to others. The packages they’d have commanded would have attracted some of the world’s top players. So there’s a real skill in recruitment and maximising value for money, one that Munster excelled at for many years, when they were getting stellar names and proven performers.
A big signing has to fit into your game model. Whether he is a lineout winner, a ball carrier or a rampaging, destructive force, every player is a different proposition. An example at Racing 92 is Dan Lydiate, who excels with the foils he has in Warburton and Faletau for Wales. They harmonised really well but in Paris, it was unfair to expect Lydiate to carry the ball, because that’s not his strength and he doesn’t show up in a positive light in that way.
In Ireland, because of budgetary and quota restrictions, the top shelf signings have to be lethal. The advantage here in France, and to a lesser extent England, is the clubs have wealthy presidents who can write a cheque and write it off nearly as quickly.
If Munster had got, say, Ma’a Nonu for similar amounts of money spent on others, look at the lift that would have given the setup.
Water under the bridge? Maybe. There has to be balance in the debate too, I accept that. When an organisation is in survival mode, the planning and future-proofing becomes very difficult to focus on. We’ve all been in that situation, so no one can say any different.
n Paris, the future is all about tomorrow in Lyon, a two and a half hour train journey away. It’s been a very different week with a million thoughts in your head and a million questions from media about the difference preparing for a Heineken Cup final as a player and a Champions Cup final as a coach. The answer? Night and day. As a player you are only thinking about your performance on the Saturday. As a coach, the challenges are left, right and centre. Getting through training. Hoping players don’t get injured. It’s nice to see Casey Laulala back in the reckoning after a leg break.
I am good to shut it down when the light goes off at night. But that’s not to say you don’t get the thumping headaches back the next day, and you drink loads of coffee, and get dehydrated before it all starts over again. I know that cycle very well. Being a player is easier? As a 10 kicking in a European cup final? Not so much, but at least you only had yourself to sedate...
I don’t remember the hour or the day I moved mentally from player to coach, but it was beyond the 12 months after Munster. For the first year, the head is spinning: ‘This time last year I was...’ Now I don’t have that itch to play, it’s very much onto the next stage.
The Saracens attack is on repeat loop in my head every night and will be again tonight. And you plan and strategise as well as you can to ensure 23 players perform near their optimum tomorrow for this club.
I wrote this before, but I’ll say it again. My sense of dread and foreboding before a final is alien to the French. They’re giddy excited in the Racing dressing room. They believe it’s their duty to play rugby and express themselves, make it a spectacle for the French public. Certainly that’s what training looked like yesterday. You want the players to express themselves, but hopefully off the right sort of ball. If you force things against this Saracens outfit, they’ll just eat you up.
