Munster have done due diligence on new signings

“We’d need to have five or six players that we’re having arguments with the IRFU over national contracts, pushing David Humphreys from now on."

Tue, 30 Jul, 2024 - 07:30

Simon Lewis

THERE will be that first day of school feeling at Munster’s High Performance Centre in Limerick as Graham Rowntree’s squad reunite for the start of pre-season training, not least for the new arrivals at the province.

South African back-three player Thaakir Abrahams joins from Lyon, fly-half Billy Burns has switched from Ulster while there are two backline signings from Connacht, centre Tom Farrell and wing Diarmuid Kilgallen.

All will be keen to impress as they embark on the next stages of their respective careers while also attempting to settle into unfamiliar surroundings. Yet while the incoming quartet gets to know their new team-mates and coaches, the Munster management led by Rowntree will be confident they know all there is to know about the recruits for 2024-25.

When the head coach first discussed the signing of the 25-year-old Abrahams in early June it was clear that Munster had done some extensive homework that went far beyond a YouTube highlight reel and a potter about on Google.

“We’ve done our research on him,” Rowntree said. “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.”

The forensic nature of the process was further detailed for the Irish Examiner by the aforementioned Munster COO Quinn, who credited former academy head Costello with upgrading the province’s recruitment operation to previously unattained levels of detail.

“It’s for every deal,” Quinn said. “Graham as head coach always has the final decision but Cossie will do all the research, probably better than we were in the past in terms of really checking.

“We’ve always done a lot of homework on players we’re bringing in, the medicals and all that stuff, that’s standard, we’ve always been doing that, but Cossie’s brought it to a new level again.

“He’s getting out there, learning more about the player, doing all the background checks and it’s a lot more thorough than even before. He will come back to Graham, present options and discuss them with the coaching group and once they’ve made their decision we engage with the IRFU (for sign-off) and it’s handed over to me to say ‘this is who we need to get’ and then it’s ‘off you go and try to get him'.

“The relationship we (Munster Rugby and the IRFU) have is clearly outlining budget restrictions all the time and my job then is to say, ‘we won’t be able to do this or that’ or ‘okay, we’ll go with this guy’.”

Quinn also revealed a shift in emphasis over player recruitment strategy that has emerged in tandem with a post-Covid tightening of the purse strings and the impending shake up of the IRFU funding model whereby the four provinces will contribute 30 per cent to their players’ central contracts, a move aimed at making the process more transparent and level the playing field in which Leinster has the lion’s share of such contracts.

“Graham has been absolutely superb in all the processes because it hasn’t been easy over the last two years. We’ve taken significant chunks off our player budget and our thought process around it, I suppose, is around investment in our underage structures because what we want is a quality academy driving competition at the bottom end of the senior squad and we’re seeing it in our caps.

“We had over 80 academy appearances this season compared to 33 and 45 in the last two years, and 11 different academy players played. Now, people will challenge that saying that was because we had a lot of injuries but no, if you look at what Graham has done over the last couple of years, he’s played a lot of the younger lads and really introduced them and we’re benefitting from that now with academy players ready to step in when players at the lower end of our senior squad drop off. So continuing that investment in our player pathway and rugby development has been really positive."

Munster’s ins and outs this summer would certainly suggest that shift in direction. Springbok lock RG Snyman left for Leinster with no like-for-like replacement from outside the current squad, while Abrahams is the only non-Irish qualified (NIQ) arrival.

“We’ve taken over €2 million out of our gross player costs over the last three seasons,” Quinn added, “in other words, our gross budget has been reduced by €2m over three seasons, €675,000 on average that we’ve pulled every single year.

“Some of that is down to national (contracts) but we don’t have the same levels of allowances from the IRFU and a lot of this is on the NIQ (Non-Irish Qualified) side but it’s about bringing through all these younger lads and not only getting them to Munster level, we need to get the quality up there because, there’s the incentive obviously of the national contracts but also just in terms of player progression.

“We’ve too many players who have done really well but let’s get them to that next stage and we’d hope with a lot of these young lads now that we can do it.

“We’d need to have five or six players that we’re having arguments with the IRFU over national contracts, pushing (new IRFU Performance Director) David Humphreys from now on, now that he’s in place.”

INS.

Incoming for 2024-25: Thaakir Abrahams (back three, 2yr deal from Lyon), Billy Burns (fly-half, 1yr from Ulster), Tom Farrell (centre, 2yr from Connacht), Diarmuid Kilgallen (wing, 2yr from Connacht).

Promoted from academy for 24-25: Tony Butler (fly-half), Ethan Coughlan (scrum-half), Mark Donnelly (prop), Edwin Edogbo (lock), Brian Gleeson (back row).

Expected back from injury for pre-season: Tom Ahern, Patrick Campbell, Dave Kilcoyne, Jean Kleyn, Paddy Patterson.

Longer-term injured: Roman Salanoa, Rory Scannell.

OUTS.

Departed: Joey Carbery (Bordeaux-Begles), Antoine Frisch (Toulon), Jack O’Sullivan (Osaka Red Hurricanes), RG Snyman (Leinster), Simon Zebo (retired).