‘It’s going to be awesome’

Munster coach Rob Penney has yet to reveal his vision for the future but the line-out and development of a new high quality back row will be high up on his agenda.

The former back row admitted he will use forwards coach Anthony Foley and team manager Niall O’Donovan to create what he believes will become a potent weapon.

“Ah, I would like to think so,” he said, “I think there are some great athletic individuals in the group that will be really challenging for spots as the season unfolds. I think there’ll be some fantastically robust discussion around line-outs [amongst us], which will be... great fun.

“Anthony’s got a really good understanding, he has an outstanding rugby brain, Paul O’Connell feeds on line-outs and I’ll be interested in Niall’s view as time unfolds, so it’ll be a good coaching environment which is going to be awesome.”

While Munster have lost vastly experienced back row players such as Alan Quinlan and David Wallace in the last 12 months, Penney sees Peter O’Mahony as a player with the ability to play a starring role for Munster.

“I’ve a massive interest in all of the group’s development and growth, to be fair, but I’ve an affinity, a deep affinity, for the loose forward play,” Penney admitted.

“Peter is someone who’s made massive strides and has a massive future if we look after him well and help him achieve the things he needs to develop. And if we can help, which I’m sure we can, then that will be a great thing.”

New backs coach Simon Mannix vowed to give 100% support to Penney in what he is hoping will be an exciting period.

“It’s a case of developing the whole group and using what talent we have available to us, be it the incumbent or the young lads trying to force their way in. We’ve got different talent, different options that we can use and we will see that down the road.

“I mean I am not going to sit here today and tell you, ‘yeah, we’re going to do this or that’. No, we’re going to take our time. We’re going to assess everything and as Rob says he has a style of play he wants, which I 100% believe in. That’s the way we’ll go down and we’ll make it work. It’s not about individuals. It’s about a group. It’s about a group performance and about our ability to harness the ability that we’ve got to help grow that.

“We’ll be looking to a lot of the individuals to see where they want to take that. It’s a bedding-in time for the players and for Rob and myself as well, it is [about] new territory and new faces but it’s going to be very exciting times for Munster rugby.”

Meanwhile, the new coaching team took time out to meet with Ireland head coach Declan Kidney on Tuesday to discuss and be brought up to speed on the way Irish rugby does business with the provinces.

Penney figures it is not much different to New Zealand, which also has a strong relationship with the various domestic operations.

“It’s a very similar model to New Zealand and what I had to deal with there,” he said.

“We had a great meeting, a very open and robust discussion with Declan [Kidney] which was a great start for me personally; I know Niall [O’Donovan] enjoyed the opportunity as well.

“So if we can have those open channels of communication then I don’t think there’ll be any hiccups. It’s often when you get surprises that anxiety or friction occurs, but I couldn’t speak highly enough of what the Irish boys said yesterday to allow us an insight into what they’re thinking and we’re going into this programme with our eyes open in relation to those senior boys [internationals].”