Season highs and lows: Munster debrief after a rollercoaster campaign
REVIEW: Munster head coach Graham Rowntree. Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Munster will reconvene at their High Performance Centre in Limerick on Tuesday for a post-season debrief following their URC semi-final exit at home to Glasgow Warriors last Saturday with Graham Rowntree’s squad set to break up in more ways than one.
Ireland boss Andy Farrell and his forwards coach Paul O’Connell were in the Thomond Park stands as the URC champions and play-off top seeds were beaten 17-10, thus ending a 10-game winning run since January 1.
With a touring squad to name on Wednesday for next month’s two-Test series against South Africa, the Irish management will be awaiting an update on absent winger Calvin Nash, who missed the knockout clash with a knock to his leg, while hoping fellow Six Nations winners Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray and national captain Peter O’Mahony emerged unscathed from a physical semi-final.
Fellow Munstermen, and wider squad members Craig Casey, Oli Jager and Jeremy Loughman will also be hoping for seats on the plane the week after next but uncapped lock Tom Ahern was ruled out of the Springbok clashes in Pretoria on July 6 and Durban seven days later after undergoing surgery on the ankle injury he sustained against Ulster on June 1.
The Ireland Under-20s start their World Championship campaign in Cape Town on June 29, with eight Munstermen, led by captain Evan O’Connell, on the 30-man squad. Brian Gleeson, Emmet Calvey, Danny Sheahan, Sean Edogbo, Luke Murphy, Ben O’Connor and Jake O’Riordan will also travel.
It will also be a day of farewells as the squad loses Simon Zebo to retirement, RG Snyman to Leinster, Joey Carbery to Bordeaux-Begles and Antoine Frisch to Toulon.
Home-grown back-rower Jack O’Sullivan is also departing, and set for a move to Japan which the province announced on Monday, the 25-year-old former Ireland Under-20 international having scored six tries in 35 senior appearances.
The 2022-23 champions limped into the New Year without either an away win or an interprovincial success as the queue for the treatment table grew week on week. They travelled to Connacht on January 1 without injured players of the calibre of Peter O’Mahony, RG Snyman, Jean Kleyn and Dave Kilcoyne, Diarmuid Barron, Joey Carbery, Alex Nankevill and Mike Haley, lost Eoghan Clarke and Fineen Wycherley before kick-off and then Oli Jager and Jack O’Donoghue in the first half. “Happy New Year,” Rowntree grumbled following the rain-sodden 22-9 Galway loss.
English Premiership champions they may now be but Saints laid down a marker for their title success with two impressive Champions Cup wins over the URC title holders, first in the pool at Thomond Park in January and then to knock them out in a Round of 16 clash at Franklin’s Gardens in April as Munster reeled from illness in the camp.
Having earned top seeding and home advantage, Munster blew their chance to win back-to-back URC titles by falling to semi-final opponents the Warriors at Thomond Park. And they will be kicking themselves they lost their way when it mattered most, spurning a succession of strong positions and try-scoring opportunities as Glasgow took the only two that came their way in clinical fashion.
A week after hitting rock bottom with that New Year’s Day derby loss at Connacht, Munster changed the narrative by heading to the south of France and becoming the first Irish province to win at Stade Felix Mayol, with a powerhouse Champions Cup pool performance by the Mediterranean.
There is no trophy for finishing first in the regular-season standings after 18 rounds but the manner of Munster’s ascendancy to top spot in the second-half of the season was a joy to behold. Eight bonus-point wins in a nine-game winning run since January 1 accounted for 44 of a possible 45 league points and represented the rewards for an ambitious style of play which bodes well for the direction of travel next season.
Peter O’Mahony’s decision to step down after a decade in the captaincy before last Christmas has paved the way for a new wave of leadership at Munster, with the former skipper still ready and willing and help them develop further into next season. Tadhg Beirne is no youngster but has grown immeasurably as a leader, while hooker Diarmuid Barron was also stepping up to the plate in that regard before a foot injury in December. Crucially this campaign also saw Jack Crowley grow in stature at fly-half for province and country, deservedly earning the URC’s Next-Gen Player of the Season award. The future looks in safe hands.
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