Munster undecided on permanent captain as Tadhg Beirne again leads side in South Africa
BEIRNE BABY BEIRNE: Munster Captain Tadhg Beirne leads his team through the team tunnel dejected after the game. Pic Credit: Ben Brady, Inpho.
Munster may have finally wrapped up Peter O’Mahony’s contract for next season but they are no closer to announcing a permanent captain to succeed him in leading the province.
Attack coach Mike Prendergast confirmed that it is an ongoing situation, with head coach Graham Rowntree content to let Tadhg Beirne lead them at the moment after Alex Kendellen held the mantle during the Six Nations break.
O’Mahony stepped down as captain in November after ten years leading the Reds, before Andy Farrell asked him to lead Ireland in the Six Nations following Johnny Sexton’s retirement after the World Cup.
Rowntree said in November that he would not be in any rush to appoint a permanent successor to O’Mahony and that remains the situation heading into the business end of the season.
Tadhg Beirne will skipper them in Pretoria this weekend when they take on the Bulls but Prendergast said nothing had been decided long-term on a captain.
“With Graham, he’s said we are going to keep doing what we have been doing over the last while,” said Prendergast.
“Tadhg has been captain for the last couple of games. Alex Kendellen was before that when the internationals were away, when Tadhg was away. It’s something Graham is comfortable with at the moment and we will just keep going the way it is.
“Tadhg is a hugely respected player. When he speaks, people listen and he’s done a wonderful job for us both on and off the pitch.”
Beirne will be joined in the second row at Loftus Versfeld by Springbok RG Snyman, while all of the back row of O’Mahony, Kendellen and Jack O’Donoghue have skippered Munster.
Meanwhile, Prendergast said double World Cup winner Snyman is itching for a crack at his former club when he will play against the Bulls, where he spent two years before moving to Japan, for the first time.
Five of Snyman’s 13 games for Munster have been against South African opposition — three times against Stormers and twice against Sharks — but this will be his first time playing against a club that he first linked up with when he was in primary school.
“It’s great for him coming back here,” said Prendergast, speaking from South Africa.
“He’s itching to get back. He’s been very unlucky over the last couple of weeks with being sick etcetera and he’s really raring to go.
“When he’s there, when he is on the pitch, he is just one of those players who lightens up people who are playing around him.
"His experience, in terms of how to approach the game against the Bulls, is massively important to us.”
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