Munster looking to youth again as doubts persist over O'Mahony and O'Donoghue

PRODUCTION LINE: Jack Crowley, left, during a Munster rugby squad training session at University of Limerick in Limerick. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Andrew Conway forced into retirement, Joey Carbery and RG Snyman among eight others out for the foreseeable, and now Peter O’Mahony and Jack O’Donoghue’s chances of featuring against Leinster in Saturday’s URC derby look to be somewhere closer to none than slim.

The faces and the nature of the injuries change but none of this is new to Munster, or to any other club operating in rugby’s professional ranks. Attrition is built into the deal at this level. The onus on those in charge is to future-proof themselves from the worst of it.

There was no confirmation of results from the scans undertaken by O’Mahony and O’Donoghue yesterday but neither trained on the back of the problems picked up in last weekend's URC defeat of the Stormers in Limerick.

It looks like Graham Rowntree’s intuition last weekend, when he expressed his doubts over their availability for the meeting with a Leinster side beaten in last year's league semi-final, might have been spot on.

The Munster head coach might now opt for a back row unit made of Alex Kendellen, John Hodnett and Gavin Coombes, or he could slip Tadhg Beirne in there and replace him in the second row with Jean Kleyn.

Nothing speaks louder for a squad’s strength in depth than the re-introduction of a recent World Cup winner. Kleyn is training fully again as of this week and a partnership with Edwin Edogbo would make for an interesting combo.

Rowntree has been happy to give younger players their go since taking over. The elevation of Jack Crowley last season was the perfect example of that but the likes of Edogbo, Brian Gleeson and Ruadhán Quinn have had their opportunities too.

“We stand by what we did last year in terms of picking the lads who are training and playing the best,” said the province’s forwards coach Andy Kyriacou. "We’ll continue to do that.

“It’s been brilliant in terms of blooding a lot of these lads through the initial part of the season and it will stand us in great stead as we start heading into that Christmas/New Year period and into Six Nations and the back end of the season.

“We want the ability to have a massive squad where we have no qualms in picking anyone because we know there’s not going to be a drop-off in standard. World Cup years are really handy for in terms of building that squad.” 

Kyriacou tipped his hat in this regard to Tom Tierney and Greig Oliver, two of Munster’s former development coaches and both of whom passed away in 2023, and the province will lean on every available man available in a week where they face their greatest rivals.

Leinster’s production line of talent remains unsurpassed in this country, and in many others, and they have had their own individual breakthroughs in the performances of youngsters such as James Culhane and Sam Prendergast in the season’s opening weeks.

Saturday at the Aviva Stadium would have made for the ideal debut for Oli Jager, who has been signed from the Crusaders, but the 28-year-old is not due to land in from New Zealand until later in the week and he is unlikely to feature just yet.

Kyriacou spoke of a player who, with five Super Rugby titles, has a glittering CV to his credit and an understanding of how to get over the finishing line thanks to his unusual but ultimately profitable decision to leave Ireland for the southern hemisphere ten years ago.

Experienced, and available, tighthead props are thin on the ground in the modern game, even more so Irish-qualified ones, and the former Ireland U18 international is an intriguing addition to a front-row area that has been identified as an area in need of work.

Still, joining mid-season will leave little time for Jager to adapt to his new surroundings, and to a style of rugby that won’t be a perfect facsimile of the game he has experienced through so many successful seasons in Christchurch.

“They get the same kind of weather to us down in New Zealand at times so I don’t think it will be that big a shock to him,” said Kyriacou. “I think he will integrate well.

“We have seen it with Nanks [Alex Nankivell, signed from the Chiefs], he has slotted in so well to the squad. The style of play that we are trying to play is very similar so I don’t see too many issues.”