Payne appointed as Munster’s manager

MUNSTER have appointed recently retiring full-back Shaun Payne as their new team manager.

The 35-year-old South African, whose professional playing career came to an end last month, is held in high regard by the Magners League side and their supporters. Payne will be Munster’s full-time team manager with Jerry Holland remaining on in an advisory capacity. Payne will continue to play at club rugby level with UL Bohemians and could be available for Munster in pressing circumstances.

Maori star Rua Tipoki will join newcomers, Paul Warwick, Kieran Lewis and Niall Ronan in an extended 35-man Munster squad for next season, with at least ten established players likely to be included in Ireland’s World Cup squad and therefore unavailable until mid October.

Outgoing players are Frank Roche, Christian Cullen, Tim McGann, Trevor Halstead, Eoghan Hickey, Chris Delooze, Shane O’Connor, Brian O’Meara, Diogo Mateus, and Ross Noonan.

Former Munster and Ireland centre Rob Henderson has retired. He spent last season in France with Toulon, but now hopes to secure a job in the coaching sector. Prior to his move to France, he had been expected to become director of rugby with Garryowen, a post no longer available.

Meanwhile rival provincial coaches in New Zealand Warren Gatland and Pat Lam have warned they may avoid signing New Zealand internationals because of their international commitments. Gatland, coach of reigning champions Waikato, and Auckland boss Lam agree they may snub All Blacks in favour of players who can devote their whole season to their team’s cause.

“From the Waikato point of view, we are probably looking at some of our All Blacks that we are paying significant amounts of money to and seeing that they are actually not playing many games for us,” former Ireland and Wasps tactician Gatland said.

“We worked out we were paying some of our All Blacks €25,000 a game.

“That’s going to put a lot of pressure back on the NZRU. That’s the flaw in the system at the moment – you have centrally-contracted players but there are also two or three masters.”

Lam agreed: “For us it actually is a lot easier that the All Blacks don’t come back,” he admitted. “When they come back you have to chop and change – but now, whatever we start with, that is effectively what we’ve got. Certainly we’ll miss the talent of the guys but, as a coach, you want to know what your boundaries are, who you have and then build.”

The provincial coaches will find out which players they have at their disposal when the World Cup squad is announced in mid-July, just days ahead of the Air New Zealand Cup kick-off.

MUNSTER SQUAD 07/08: T Buckley, M Horan, D Hurley, J Hayes, E McGovern, F Pucciariello, D Fogarty, J Flannery, F Sheahan, P O’Connell, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, D Ryan, C Wyatt, J Coughlan, A Foley, D Leamy, J O’Sullivan, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace, B Carney, I Dowling, A Horgan, J Kelly, K Lewis, M Lawlor, B Murphy, J Manning, R O’Gara, T O’Leary, L Mafi, P Stringer, P Warwick.

Development contracts (to include): Denis Hurley, Gerry Hurley, Tom Gleeson, Keith Earls, Ciaran O’Boyle, Mark Melbourne and Timmy Ryan.

Management: Declan Kidney (Coach); Jim Williams (Forwards coach); Tony McGahan (Skills/Defence Backs Coach); Shaun Payne (Team Manager).