View from the stands: IRFU must show ambition in hiring next Thomond boss

Rowntree’s departure was not about results, so as everyone asked a few hours later when the news was announced..why? Focusing on the future, it’s clear now that the IRFU have to refocus their spending logic on Munster

Graham Rowntree's departure from Munster is an unusual one. Pic: Darren Stewart/Inpho

The IRFU think in five-year cycles, not weeks. You know how they do business if you’re in this game long enough. Cool, calm, collected, and ruthless, but rarely cruel or unusual. So when someone has to be moved on, it’s almost always with a contracted notice period to maximise stability and continuity. They used it with Matt O’Connor, they used it with Kieran Keane at Connacht, and while that notice period cuts both ways at times — Erasmus, Van Graan and Lam all used that notice period to exit their deals — it’s generally how things are done, barring exceptional circumstances.

So when you see Graham Rowntree’s immediate departure being announced late in October — just six weeks into the season — it’s incredibly notable because of how much of a departure it is from the IRFU’s normal course of action.