'Legend' Zebo finishing on his own terms, says Rowntree

The Corkman will retire at the end of the season.

Mon, 03 Jun, 2024 - 01:00

Simon Lewis

Out with the old and in with the new. Graham Rowntree paid tribute to “club legend” Simon Zebo ahead of his retirement at the end of the month, showed the door to Antoine Frisch, and looked excitedly forward to this summer’s arrival of new signing Thaakir “Tuckie” Abrahams during his post-match press conference on Saturday night.

Since the Munster head coach last spoke to the media, the URC champions have been made several announcements worthy of comment, not least the decision of record try scorer Zebo to call it quits at the end of this season.

The 34-year-old Corkman will head into the URC play-offs in a rich vein of form after another impressive performance at full-back in the 29-24 home win over Ulster on Saturday and his boss is full admiration for a player able to pick the moment of his exit.

“Zeebs, what more does he have to prove?” Rowntree said. “I think if you come to the end of your game and you can finish on your terms then it’s a big deal. And look at the way he’s playing. He’s going to finish on his terms.

“He’s a great energy around the group. It’s not a question of you know he’s in the room, you know he’s in the building, you know he’s in Limerick.

“No, he’s a legend. I wouldn’t use that word loosely, he’s a club legend but he’s going out on his terms.”

Last week’s capture of what appears to be Zebo’s direct replacement, 25-year-old Lyon and former Sharks wing/full-back Abrahams had attack coach Mike Prendergast purring last Tuesday when he described a player with genuine x-factor and Rowntree emphasised the amount of homework done on the new signing from South Africa.

“Abrahams, Tuckie is his nickname. He calls me Wig, I call him Tuckie,” the Munster boss said.

“We’ve done our research on him. A bit of a leftfield signing but not for us. Ian Costello, who is our head of rugby operations, is involved in recruitment now with myself and (chief operating officer) Philip Quinn, and he did a lot of research.

“We’ve been looking for a quality back-three signing but we’ve done the diligence about the ability to settle in Limerick and fit in with the squad. We were speaking to his school rugby coaches, the people that have worked with him, that’s the diligence we’ve gone into.

“I think he’ll be brilliant for us.” Rowntree, though, is clearly disappointed by Frisch, the French-born, Irish-qualified centre who will depart this summer for Toulon, having secured a release from his Munster contract a year early to pursue his ambition to play for the country of his birth.

“Frisch, it is what it is. He wants to play for France and play in France. I’m not going to stand in his way.

“He’s been brilliant for us as a player, I’m disappointed that he’s leaving, wanted him to stay but I’m not going to keep someone here who doesn’t want to be here, frankly.”