Munster’s briefing encounter

AS judgement calls go, the decision by the Munster rugby hierarchy to host a breakfast briefing in the heart of Limerick - where a robust dissertation of hot issues such as current form, ticket availability and the particularly thorny issue of Christian Cullen’s net worth to the team - was top drawer.

Perhaps it was the early hour of the day or maybe the calm reason with which chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald and coach Alan Gaffney explained their thinking, but the anticipated bloodletting never happened as the 200 odd attendees stoically listened to why Munster Rugby is doing things the way it is.

With Limerick being the hotbed of rugby in this part of the world, a certain disaffection with a variety of issues, not least the disappointing opening Celtic League run, might have been expected. But no, there was no table thumping or even raised voices; just a calm acceptance that many of the thornier issues were out of the Munster authority’s control.

With a second briefing taking place in Cork this morning, the hierarchy will be relieved to have the Limerick leg of the gig behind them without any great bother. Professional sport can be a volatile business, especially when things aren’t going your way, but the thinking in the Strand Hotel yesterday was that better times are around the corner.

Garrett Fitzgerald ran the rule over things such as financing - the €4.8m spent annually running the senior team only raising an eyebrow or two - and outlined his aspirations for the development of both Thomond Park and Musgrave Park into acceptably modern facilities.

The latter plans, he revealed, were intended to turn Thomond into a 20,000 capacity stadium, while planning for a 5,000 seater stand in Musgrave Park - famously described as resembling the recreation area from the Shawshank Redemption by former international Gary Halpin - could be in place by January.

All very well, but all around the world professional rugby is suffering from funding issues. The game faces insolvency problems from Auckland to Abergavenny and, with Lansdowne Road being expensively redeveloped, money in Irish rugby is as scarce as a ticket for the All-Ireland.

“Many of the rugby unions in the world are broke,” Fitzgerald revealed, adding that every penny the Munster Branch could lay its hands on was invaluable. The Catch 22 is that if the team cannot draw big enough crowds, then it cannot support itself, but if its grounds cannot take big crowds, then it cannot make enough money.

“The development of Lansdowne Road is taking priority with the IRFU,” the CEO said, “because that will copper-fasten the professional game in this country.”

Therefore, if Munster needs cash to speed up development of their two homes, they’re going to have to find it themselves.

To the playing side of things, and Alan Gaffney revealed that while he supports the controversial 10-week conditioning regime for national squad players - depriving him of his best players for the Celtic League - he admitted it was frustrating.

“There’s no way around it,” he said, “unless the number of Celtic League games is cut, but that in itself has financial implications for the Branch. As things stand, we will only have our full squad for eight of 20 games, but it is a long season and we will improve.”

Gaffney was defensive when mention was made of the province’s expensive import Christian Cullen, the subject of criticism from the terraces and the media for an alleged failure to live up to his All Black form.

“The Cullen issue has been put to bed as far as I’m concerned after his performances so far this season,” Gaffney asserted.

“The trouble is Christian has been running fantastic lines this season and at the tail end of last year, although many journalists didn’t recognise the fact.

“As for our form now, I’m not happy at losing three games, but I am happy at the level we’re playing at and I’m also happy we are bringing a good number of young home-grown talent through the ranks.

“We do not sign overseas players on a whim; we do so because they can bring something to Munster and help us develop our own players.

“But having said that, we need patience too and I feel that the likes of our young second rowers, Shane O’Connor and Donnacha Ryan, should be allowed time and space to develop and, from a physical development point of view, should even be given a year away from the game, but we cannot do that.”

And so on it went, from jersey sales (the branch get 7% of the net trade price on each one sold), which are the second highest in Europe after London Irish, to Clive Woodward’s appointment as Lions coach.

“He’s gonna bring a battery of northern hemisphere coaches, except Matt Williams,” joked Gaffney.