Howlett: I’ve learnt from the best

As captains go, Doug Howlett has played for the best, and if he can come anywhere close to emulating their success, Munster are in the best possible hands.

Succeeding Paul O’Connell, who stepped down two weeks ago after six years, Howlett’s tenure got off to a flying start on Saturday as he led Munster to a 23-18 win at Edinburgh.

As he approaches his 96th appearance for the province, at home against Treviso on Friday, Howlett spoke of the captains he has played under and how he hopes to channel their leadership skills.

“Richie McCaw and Tana Umaga are two of the captains I played under and who I enjoyed,” Howlett said. “There was Sean Fitzpatrick in my early days and, obviously, more recently Paul. They’ve all been exceptional leaders.”

That is a not a bad list, it is pointed out, and Howlett breaks into a grin.

“Exactly. What can I say? I’d like to say I took a little bit from all of them in terms of my own role leading into this year.”

The former All Black star, who still holds the record as New Zealand’s highest test try scorer, with 49 in 62 appearances, also sees leading from the wing as shaping his captaincy.

“I guess, just where I am on the field, my position on the field, I have an overview of the game and I can see how things are panning out, and hopefully adjust accordingly,” he said.

“That’s the sort of on-field leadership, but away from the field I’ll draw on a lot of the experience in the team and a lot of the leaders that are already existing.

“Our team is broken up into groups of leaders, so obviously Paul will be a big part of that when he’s back in the squad, James Coughlan’s playing that role for us at the moment, but as a winger I see myself looking at the game as a big picture.

“I think things worked well on the weekend, where we could try different ways of playing to break down the opposition. I’m here to do my best and bring this team along the best I can. That’s been an overriding goal for all the players here so it’s a natural fit to keep pushing on.”

Munster certainly pushed on between their final pre-season performance against London Irish on August 24 and their opening RaboDirect Pro12 fixture last Saturday, and Howlett considers the matter of a difficult pre-season as a mere stepping stone to the main event.

“Pre-season, we built and we tried a few things but leading into [the Edinburgh game], last week, there was a definite step up, I think, in preparation and intensity and leading into the game, I had no concern that our game plan wasn’t going to be at a better level. We were hoping for the win but our performance was the main thing. We got that and our pre-season is behind us now.

“We saw some teething problems initially but it’s an exciting game plan that we’ve all bought into, so I guess that’s the overriding fact, that players like playing like this and once you have a game plan like that, the enjoyment comes and the will to do well for each other as well.

“I guess the thing with this game plan is that we have both styles. We can play tight and we can play with width, which I guess, in terms of defences, is what you want to do. You want to keep them challenged and so it’s nice to have both styles of play up our sleeves.”

Munster’s two tries against Edinburgh neatly highlighted Howlett’s view. As for the favourable bounce of the ball from his chip ahead for Keatley, that was all part of the plan as well, at least according to the captain.

“Yeah, I’ve been working on that backspin all pre-season and it was nice to see it come off,” Howlett said with a laugh.

Happy days, it seems, are here again.