Comment: Graham Rowntree Munster departure was no kneejerk reaction to poor run of form
SO LONG: Graham Rowntree's departure from Munster was no kneejerk reaction. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
Munster’s search for a new head coach is underway as the province comes to terms with the sudden departure of Graham Rowntree.
Rowntree has left by mutual consent with Munster and the IRFU, with 20 months of his contract still to run with sources inside the province insisting the Englishman’s departure just six matches into the new URC season was no kneejerk reaction to a run of poor form.
The outgoing boss’s statement issued yesterday suggested as much with the 53-year-old former Leicester Tigers and England prop stating now was the “right stage for my family and I to look forward to a new chapter”, certainly not the words of a coach who had run out of road in the present one.
Yet a five-year spell with Munster which started as Johann Van Graan’s forwards coach in November 2019 and saw him succeed his former boss as a first-time head coach in the summer of 2022 is now at an end.
Head of Rugby Operations Ian Costello has been made interim head coach while the recruitment process for a permanent replacement begins and the former academy head will be charged with bringing together a playing squad now missing its figureheads with Rowntree gone and several senior players and influential leaders away on international duty with Ireland.
The international break will offer a welcome respite for a beleaguered group which arrived home from South Africa on Monday after a third straight defeat which leaves Munster 12th in the 16-team URC standings after six matches.
The next league fixture is not until November 30, at home to the Lions, by which time Rowntree had hoped to have several injured players fit again. Now it has fallen to Costello, with assistant coaches Mike Prendergast, Denis Leamy, Andi Kyriacou, Mossie Lawlor and George Murray, to get the show back on the road.
That raft of injuries had no doubt contributed to his side’s inconsistent start to the new campaign, with two home wins and four heavy away defeats on the ledger, though Rowntree had insisted as recently as Saturday in the wake of a 41-24 loss at the Sharks in Durban that there would be no need to “go back to the drawing board” in search of a return to winning ways.
Yet it appears his exit was already being discussed before the Sharks game, not least by him. Talks are understood to have been ongoing for some time between the head coach, the Munster Rugby Board, and its Professional Games Committee, on which both Rowntree and chief executive Ian Flanagan sit without voting rights.
The Irish Rugby Football Union has the final say on all professional rugby appointments in the provinces and is not an organisation to rush into such a decision, though it did sanction Dan McFarland’s departure from a similar role at Ulster Rugby last February.
Rowntree’s situation appears quite different, though rumours of discontent within the Munster camp had been circulating for several months. Having delivered a first trophy to the province with the URC title in his first year as head coach, Rowntree also engineered a finish on top of the regular season standings last June, though the title defence foundered with a loss of form in the play-offs as eventual champions Glasgow Warriors ended Munster’s reign at the semi-final stage.
On and off the field, in tandem with his coaching appointments, chiefly Prendergast and Leamy, he transformed both Munster’s training methods, upping the intensity and tempo of sessions, and game plan, handing attack coach Prendergast free rein to implement a more expansive approach to eye-catching effect.
He has also enabled Costello to streamline the player pathways from under-16 level through to the senior squad and not been afraid to blood young players at a rate not seen before, handing a record 80 appearances to his academy men last season.
What is more, and simply put, Rowntree “got” Munster. A Leicester Tiger throughout his playing career, he identified familiar traits to the East Midlands giants on his arrival at the High Performance Centre in Limerick and his affinity with the Irish province was appreciated by supporters who on Tuesday took to social media to voice their sorrow and in some cases anger at his exit.
His will be big shoes to fill and Munster will not rush into appointing Rowntree’s successor. The strange timing of the vacancy arising, so soon into the season suggests Costello may be at the helm for some time, although coaches’ agents will no doubt be bombarding the IRFU with CVs of available candidates.
Former playing heroes will be canvassed, not least favourite sons Ronan O’Gara at La Rochelle and Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell but another from the elite level, Felix Jones, may be a more likely candidate given his decision to walk away from the England set-up in August less than a year into his tenure as defence coach.
A double World Cup winner with South Africa, the former Munster and Ireland full-back was credited with introducing a blitz defence to Steve Borthwick’s England squad as the red rose enjoyed an upturn in fortunes last season, denying Ireland a Six Nations Grand Slam in the process.
Despite his resignation, though, Jones remains under contract to the RFU until the end of this season and Munster may well concentrate on finding a way to execute their former player ahead of schedule.
Joins Johann van Graan’s staff as forwards coach from Georgia following their World Cup pool campaign in Japan.
Announced as van Graan’s successor as head coach on a two-year deal from July 2022. Rowntree’s first appointment as a head coach.
Munster lose five of their first seven URC games under Rowntree and only qualify for the play-offs with an unlikely win at the Stormers in the penultimate round of the regular season.
It is the first of five unbeaten matches away from home, a run that culminates in a Grand Final victory back in Cape Town against the Stormers. Munster are champions with a first trophy in 12 years.
P18 W10 D1 L7 Pts 55 - 5th place.
P3 W3 – Champions.
Pool P4 W2 L2. R16 – Lost at Sharks.
Signs a two-year contract extension to July 2026 in September and leads Munster to top spot in the final regular-season URC standings before a tail off in form sees them beaten at home by eventual champions Glasgow Warriors in the semi-finals.
P18 W13 D1 L4 Pts 68 - 1st place.
P2 W1 L1 - Losing semi-finalists.
Pool P4 W1 D1 L2. R16 – Lost at Northampton Saints.
Munster win their first two home games, in rounds one and three but lose badly at Zebre Parma in round two, their first ever defeat to the perennial strugglers from Italy.
Three losses on the road at Leinster, the Stormers and Sharks consign Munster to 12th place in the league after the opening six rounds.
P6 W2 L4 Pts 12 – 12th place.
P57 W32 D3 L 22. Win%: 56.15.
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