Planning to stay at summit
Men like John Langford, Jim Williams and Trevor Halstead have all played defining roles in the side’s tortuous journey to the top, but it was the ‘club’ atmosphere fostered by servants like Anthony Foley, Mick Galwey and Peter Clohessy that has been the central driving force to the weekend’s victory.
That, as much as anything, has contributed to Munster’s famed X-factor and Fitzgerald is adamant that it won’t change in the years to come.
“We wouldn’t decide our policy for the future on what happens on one day,” said the chief executive. “Our planning would be based over two or three years. At the end of the day, our policy is to grow our own. You can’t just buy your way to success.
“Everything helps. This will help for next year and the year after, but it’s up to us to make sure that the opportunity is taken. We achieved this success with a very reasonable budget compared to some of the teams we play against, so that shows you that money doesn’t buy everything.
“The players in Ireland are good enough, but you would always need three or four overseas players to give you that extra edge and bring on the younger players. We’ve been lucky with most of the guys that we’ve brought in.”
Fitzgerald indicated that the tangible financial rewards for success at the Millennium Stadium would not be hugely significant, but he did admit that Munster were firmly in the driving seat when it came to dealing with any new potential sponsors. “It’s massive. It’s basically the Champions League of rugby. Hopefully it will make negotiating with our sponsors that bit easier. We’ll have more to offer them. They may have to pay that little bit more, but we’ll be able to give them an awful lot more too.”
Sport, as we all know, is a business. Always has been and is now more than ever. Maximising the Munster ‘brand’ and cashing in on their new-found status is now key. As Fitzgerald suggested, it is the least they deserve after all they have done to make the Heineken Cup part of this continent’s staple sporting diet.
“The whole Heineken Cup competition has been a phenomenal success and I don’t have any qualms about saying that we are one of the reasons it has been with the support base that we have following us.
“Our supporters have a loving relationship with the whole competition itself. It’s difficult for the ERC to recognise that, when they’re dealing with the six nations involved, but I would imagine that, unofficially, they’re happy that we won it.
“It’s good for the competition itself. It’s good for their sponsors and brand and Irish people have really taken the whole competition to heart in the other provinces as well.”
Having spent the last ten years devoting their lives for this success, it might seem churlish and even nonsensical to suggest that, for Munster, the hard work is only just beginning for the force of nature that Munster Rugby has become. Wringing every penny out of Saturday has to be top priority. With GAA and soccer still claiming ownership rights over vast swathes of the province as well, there are still fields to be conquered closer to home. The battle for hearts and minds rages on.
“The key thing for us going forward from here is making sure we have the facilities to maximise it,” said Fitzgerald. “We are moving towards improving our stadiums and that has got to be the priority. That is one of the things that will ensure we do maximise this occasion. We’ll move on to much bigger things, but it’s like every professional sport – the guys are back in action next week with a Celtic League game on Saturday.”
The visit of Cardiff to Thomond Park next weekend promises to be an emotional, unforgettable day, but not all Celtic League fixtures stir the senses in the same manner. Getting into Thomond Park for a home Heineken Cup match may be more difficult than slipping security at Fort Knox. The same can’t be said for the Celtic League.
For Munster to reach their off-field potential, the European ‘Low Lies’ as some of the die-hards have been known to call them need to swap the couch for the terraces on a more frequent basis.
“It’s our domestic league and you don’t scorn your domestic league,” said Fitzgerald. “The Celtic League is very important for us. If it is properly promoted and gets a sponsor it will become a great competition. You have a lot of very good rugby players in Wales. They won the Triple Crown and Grand Slam last year, Ireland won the Triple Crown last year and the Scots are improving every year, so it’s far from a one nation competition. It can be a great competition if people want it to be.”
Those of a pessimistic nature, of course, will point out that, as of now, the only way for Munster to go is down, not up. Reaching the summit is one thing, staying there can be quite another.
Sport is littered with the carcasses of once-mighty outfits that found the could not maintain their mighty appetite once the Holy Grail has been finally found. Manchester United for the 30 years after 1968 and the English rugby side post-2003 serving as merely the most high-profile of cautionary tales.
Fitzgerald is confident that won’t be a fate Munster will be sharing. “The success achieved has been the culmination of many years’ work by a lot of people. Going back to Declan’s first spell here, Alan Gaffney and then Declan again, all the staff, people like Jerry Holland who has been there over the whole course of it.
“There has been a huge honest work ethic behind the organisation and I would like to think that will continue as before.”
Kings of Europe on the park, the battle for supremacy off it has yet to begin.
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