Munster get three home base varsity offers

Munster Rugby have received three offers from third level institutions to host a full time training base which will end the necessity for playing and coaching staffs to travel between two centres in Cork and Limerick.

The University of Limerick and Cork Institute of Technology, where Munster are currently based on different days, have been joined by Limerick Institute of Technology in drawing up proposals for a new state of the art training centre.

But provincial chiefs last night revealed it could take up to two years before there is any final movement on the project.

Munster Chief Executive Garrett Fitzgerald admitted they had received proposals from all three third level centres and had employed an independent consultant to study them and draw up proposals. “It will probably be the end of August before we can further discuss the matter and if we were to take a decision one way or another it would be at least 18 months to two years before there would be any move. It would have to go for ratification to the Branch and would involve building facilities at one of the three places and considerable planning would be involved.”

Mr Fitzgerald said suggestions of building facilities somewhere between Cork and Limerick – Mallow, Charleville and Mitchelstown had been touted as possibilities – were wide of the mark given the costs of building on a greenfield site.

Having to have support staff at both current venues brings an added financial burden and Mr Fitzgerald admitted it was time to seriously examine how to have a more efficient cost base and to make more efficient use of time for both players and coaches by cutting down on travel times.

But the CEO insisted the matter would not come down to a political decision in having to choose between Cork or Limerick. He said: “We’re running a business and it is absolutely going to be a business decision at the end of the day.”