Gaffney to strengthen Munster squad for next year

WHETHER Munster win this season’s Heineken European Cup or not, coach Alan Gaffney is adamant he will strengthen his squad for next year.

He has already been in discussion with Chris Latham, the richly talented Australian full-back/winger and admits “he is one of the parties we’ve been talking to and looking at, although no agreement has been reached. There won’t be wholesale changes by any stretch of the imagination, we’re just looking to plug a few holes here and there, people getting near the end of their careers, others carrying long term injuries, they are the only holes we will be filling.”

Over the next couple of months, players’ agents know that teams will be looking to bolster their squads, so CVs are being sent all over the place and Alan Gaffney confirms that a number have landed on his desk.

“If you looked at the quality of those who have been put to us, you’d nearly have a world XV,” he says with a laugh. “I’m not claiming we haven’t talked turkey with a lot of them. Guys like Kees Meeuws who, you’ve got to agree, was a reasonable tight head in his time with the All Blacks, also Scott Robertson, an All Black back-row; Ben Darwin and Billy Young, tight and loose heads with Australia, Glenn Panahoe, a tight head for Australia.

“Serious players are being mentioned but what transpires, we don’t know. You might have 15 names mentioned on some of these contacts. All the other top European sides are getting the same letters. The agents ask to know what positions you want to strengthen for next year and we might reply that John Hayes and Marcus Horan will be away for the front and back ends of next season because of the Celtic League and the Six Nations.

“The second half of the Celtic League will take place during the Six Nations and we’d need people capable of playing at a reasonable level as their replacements. There’s a dearth of front rowers in Ireland, you don’t have to be a genius to see that, it’s just a fact of life.

“There are quite a lot of developing players coming through, but there’s a gap right now. We’ve got to put the national interest first and I fully agree with that. I’ve got no problem with saying the two non-Irish eligibility rule is a good rule. We could go into a competition with 30 guys bearing European passports, but none of them eligible to play for Ireland. We’ve got to get the balance right and the union have been excellent in that regard.”

Most if not all of the Irish national players are already contracted to 2004, but there are others who need to re-sign now and Gaffney believes they will have fully achieved that within another week. He has until August for the Celtic League and November for the Heineken Cup to nominate his squads: “With stars in my eyes I thought the whole thing could have been finalised by the end of February but that was never on,” he admits.