Keep calm and carry on — Beirne will be different type of Munster captain

The Munster camp is fielding harsh criticism after Saturday's defeat by Zebre, an early test of new captain Tadhg Beirne's leadership.

LEAD FROM THE FRONT: Tadhg Beirne at Munster training in UL, Limerick. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

There was a time when Tadhg Beirne would joke with team-mates about his capacity for captaincy but his introduction as Munster’s newest permanent skipper comes as the squad he spearheads looks in need of some strong leadership.

Beirne is one of three heavyweight returnees to Munster’s ranks after a delayed pre-season following Ireland’s summer tour to South Africa. The new captain is in line to lead his new charges into URC battle against Ospreys in Cork this Saturday alongside his predecessor Peter O’Mahony and fly-half Jack Crowley.

Their seasonal debuts could not come at a better time given Munster’s URC round-two humiliation by Zebre Parma in Italy last Saturday, a 42-33 defeat that produced a dismal defensive performance, sloppy unforced errors and some terrible game management, having wrapped up a try bonus point inside 40 minutes to take a 28-15 interval lead.

Like defence coach Denis Leamy, who agreed with the withering but “very fair” criticisms of his former team-mate turned RTÉ analyst Donncha O’Callaghan, Beirne accepts the hammering the province is currently getting from rugby’s talking heads and supporters alike. Yet despite the concession of 11 tries in the first two games of the URC campaign, the British & Irish Lion lock/flanker insisted there was no need for a kneejerk change of direction.

“I think we’ve been training particularly well most of the time. The last two games, six points from two games, we’re not going to panic, particularly with how we started the season last year,” Beirne said.

“But we certainly have a lot of room for improvement, particularly around defence, we’ve been uncharacteristic with how we’ve been playing the last number of years, how we’ve defended in the last two games so I think there’s a big area where we need to improve but we’ve also shown glimpses of what we can do as well.

“I’m certainly not worried but I also recognise there’s a lot of work to do too.

“We went through the review, we went through missed opportunities and particularly defensively what we lacked over the weekend and that's behind us now and we're able to focus on Ospreys.” 

For the captain, the kicking Munster are taking in the media is part and parcel of life inside the camp but he said something similar has been at play within the province’s High Performance Centre.

"I think the coaches have brought the messages and everyone knows it's not acceptable, especially when you show the clips and you watch them and they replay them a couple of times, you can feel in the room everyone knows that's just not good enough and will say it.

"It might be another kick up the ass later in the week if we haven't trained well but we've spoken about that level, that standard that we expect ourselves to be at and us being underneath that, so if we don't start reaching that soon I can imagine those meetings won't be as nice, I suppose, they'll get a little bit more....

"Like, you talk about the media coming at you, that's just normal. When you're not performing, you're not performing and you're going to get slated, aren't you, and that's just part of it.

"So it's up to us to regroup and get better but like I said, I'm not worried because we got to a semi-final, we topped the League last year, we didn't start well last year but we always find our rhythm no matter what through the season and it's going to be no different this year.

"We had a poor game over the weekend, we have a massive opportunity to go to Cork and set things right and set a standard that we want to keep chasing, and it's no different, you're going to have bad weeks and I can guarantee you there'll be another bad week during the year and we'll be like, 'Jesus, we need a kick up our ass', and that's just part of rugby.” 

There is undoubtedly added responsibilities on Beirne’s shoulders now as they attempt to ride out these early-season setbacks and it is a situation the Ireland star does not shy away from, though once he might not have relished his current status.

“I probably used to joke, 'Imagine me being captain' to some of the lads, like, I don't think I necessarily would have been picturing being captain, especially in my earlier years.

"I don't think speaking comes naturally to me in terms of... you talk about Pete (O’Mahony) being a natural leader, he is, he's incredible at making speeches, he's incredible at gearing up lads but I don't think I'm going to be that captain.

"I have a bit of a different approach to it in terms of I won't do as much talking, a lot of the other lads will be doing that and I'll speak when I feel the need to speak but my approach will certainly be a little bit calmer in certain areas and my best way is to try to lead by example on and off the field.

"So I'll just be a bit of a calm presence around the place when I can be and yeah, I suppose there's many types of leadership and I've learned a lot from Pete over the years by watching him lead and hopefully I'll be able to use some of his traits."

Beirne is just delighted to get the chance to return to competitive action this Saturday.

“Any pre-season, by the end of it you’re looking forward to getting back playing. We’ve been training away for the last few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s also nice to have weekends free, well, not ‘free’ free but being able to spend time with my family too but we’ve had a very good break this time so very much itching to get back and play.”