‘Munster will not become a one-city team’

Munster will not be turning their backs on Cork or indeed the rest of the province now the decision has been made to establish their main squad training centre at the University of Limerick, chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald has insisted.

Munster yesterday ended years of debate about ending the traditional practice of dividing squad practice sessions between centres at either end of the N20 in Limerick and Cork by announcing a single training base will be located on the UL campus.

The decision, Fitzgerald said, had been taken in the midst of a severe economic downturn and after a lengthy consultative process involving players, management and Munster officials, as well as with an independent consultant and had been ratified at Munster Branch Executive level earlier this week.

But although the UL base was anticipated to be fully operational by 2015, Fitzgerald told the Irish Examiner that Munster Rugby would continue to use the facilities at Cork Institute of Technology, which along with Limerick IT was also on the shortlist, and Munster games would continue to be played at a soon to be upgraded Musgrave Park in Cork.

The province will also allow players decide where they wish to live and insist they remain with their clubs and play AIL rugby. In short, the chief executive said, Munster would not become a one-city team.

“Absolutely not. The first thing people need to realise is that there’s more to Munster Rugby than Cork and Limerick. Our rugby has developed over the last number of years and you could see that at our [annual] awards today where the spread of awards was around country areas.

“We’re not turning our back on anywhere. What we’re doing is trying to be progressive for the future of rugby in the province. All we have decided on is where is the best place for the team to prepare to help them to perform better.

“It’s having no effect whatsoever on where games will be played. We have already agreed on a plan for the upgrade of Musgrave Park, which is subject to a planning application on a site that we’re trying to sell there. We have a model in place for that to go ahead hopefully and nothing will change.

“Players will continue to live wherever they want to live themselves and players will have to continue to play with all the clubs within the province. Regardless of AIL regulation on what numbers can play we will be insisting on them staying and playing with their clubs because the strength of rugby in the province has come out of the club system.

“So we’re not turning our back on anything, what I’m hoping we’ve done is for the progress of the game in the province and it’s far from the opposite.”

Fitzgerald emphasised the decision to make UL the single training base had nothing to do with geography, but the quality of facilities available and the level of contribution from the bidder to funding those facilities, which, going on Leinster’s new state of the art base in Clonskeagh, Dublin, could cost in the region of €3.5m.

“The location wasn’t about which town or what city, the whole process was based on a single training centre, the facilities that would be available and how it would be funded.

” If it ended up in Cahir or Tralee it wouldn’t have been an issue. It was based on those other things and how the institutes that we worked with could assist in funding it, realising how the current economic situation is affecting our own financial model. Putting all that together and with the help of an outside consultant, we’ve arrived at our decision and we’re very happy with it.”

Munster had considered building a dedicated training base equidistant from Cork and Limerick, only for those ambitions to be scuppered by the economic collapse that hit Ireland at the end of the last decade, the downturn forcing further delays in the decision-making process and a reappraisal of what were the viable options.

“The economic situation changed from the time we started looking. We had to look at it from a completely different financial model which delayed the decision on it but, look, it’s part of our strategic plan going back three years ago and there was unanimous agreement to enact it and now a decision has been made on it.”

Fitzgerald also revealed Munster were close to finding a shirt sponsor for next season, with Toyota Ireland having ended its nine-year association worth more than €13 million to the province at the end of this campaign.

“I would hope that there would be some clarification on that within the week, good news hopefully,” he said.