Penney: Transition phase over

Rob Penney has declared Munster’s period of transition to be well and truly over as the province turns its focus towards Saturday’s meeting with Leinster and, beyond that, the opening rounds of the Heineken Cup.

The ‘T’ word was being bandied about the province long before the Kiwi replaced Tony McGahan during the summer but Penney could have been forgiven for leaning on it a while longer as Munster and their new head man get to grips with one another.

Joe Schmidt zeroed in on Leinster’s ball skills when he arrived in Dublin three summers ago and Penney has followed that blueprint with a Munster side that has changed considerably in terms of personnel from the one that delivered their last Heineken Cup back in 2008.

The early returns had been impressive until last weekend’s sobering defeat away to the Ospreys but the picture will become much clearer once the annual trip to the Aviva and the European opener against Racing Metro 92 in Paris are in the rear view mirror.

“The whole transition talk that has been going around is something that we’ve got to move on from,” he said at the Heineken Cup launch in Dublin yesterday. “We have to start performing when they wear the Munster jersey. The expectation is there that they do perform.

“They’ve done really well until now and I’m proud of where the team have come from and where they’re headed. Every week is a new challenge and they have to grow a little every week and that’s the expectation that everyone has, supporters and players.”

Those words were echoed by captain Doug Howlett, but the former All Black is one of the few ‘old-timers’ to be facing into this first crucial phase of the season with a considerable chunk of game time under his belt.

Injuries and the IRFU’s player management programme have hamstrung the Munster brains trust thus far — as it has his fellow Kiwis, Schmidt and Mark Anscombe, in Ulster — meaning key men are still busy scraping the rust from their frames.

Ronan O’Gara, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony and Donnacha Ryan have all played less than 80 minutes each, a full five games into the campaign, while Paul O’Connell hasn’t featured at all and various combinations are still only being trialled.

Keith Earls and Casey Laulala had their first run-out together at midfield against the Ospreys, for example, and Penney admitted he could understand the case for simply flooding the team with all available front-liners en masse.

“That’s the dilemma we have at this critical stage of our campaign — the internationals drip-feeding back, how much experience and time they need on the field to be able to control the game in the way we know they can.

“Trying to ensure that someone like Paulie is in great shape when he comes back and able to cope with a lot of rugby back to back. You don’t want to throw him back early and all of a sudden it compromises his ability to play for us and Ireland down the track.

“So, it is a bit of a juggling act.”

Were it anyone but Munster, there would be a case for suggesting that ambitions could be reined in somewhat while it all gels together but the province’s unique relationship with the European Cup has been drilled into Penney since his arrival and he knows no such lack will be cut.

“I don’t think this season’s Heineken Cup is too soon for us at all,” said Howlett. “Time will tell. We’re not approaching it in that way. We’re going to give it our best shot and do what we’ve been training to do and we’re hoping that will be good enough.

“We’re focused on our performance at the moment. We let things slip at the weekend so it’s vital for us to revisit a lot of the good things that we’ve been doing earlier in the season. Our priority is putting on a good performance, not just this week but for the whole season.”

It will be anything but dull — with Munster, it rarely is — and it will be fascinating to see how a more expansive bent will fare in a group where Racing, Saracens and the Neil Back-hardened Edinburgh will be expected to promote grunt at the expense of guile.

“There’s certainly method to the madness,” said Howlett. “After so long under the same regime, it’s refreshing for the squad to try something new. They’ve responded well to the challenges and it’s a brand of football that we like to play.”