We never replaced O'Gara and O'Connell - Conor Murray criticises 'penny-pinching' Munster
Conor Murray of Munster leaves the field after the defeat by Sharks last season. Pic:Â Steve Haag Sports/Darren Stewart
Conor Murray has criticised the Munster hierarchy for their poor recruitment policy, constant coaching turnover, and considerable "penny-pinching" in his new book launched on Thursday.
Murray, now officially retired, writes in , that he has "to hold my hand up and take my share of responsibility for Munster not achieving what those lads achieved" back in the 2000s, but he maintains that the players and coaches he soldiered with "could have got more help from the organisation".
"I would argue we were let down by recruitment decisions over the years. Munster's recruitment policy hasn't been nearly good enough in my time.
"I don't know if they recruited on the cheap but I do know to win Champions Cups you need a cohort of world-class players and I don't think we had enough of them.Â
"[Ronan O'Gara] was a world-class 10. He had an incredible forward pack in front of him, driven by another world-class player in Paul O'Connell. Did we ever replace them? Of course we didn't. And we were expected to emulate what they achieved without players of that calibre."
"Financially we were far too conservative. We ended up skimping on the talent that's needed to win the big one."
For Murray there were other symptoms of such "skimping", like last season's shock away defeat to Zebre.
"The penny-pinching has been going on for years at Munster, a sort of mindset of doing things on the cheap here and hoping to get away with it."
He details how for that 4pm game on a Saturday in Parma, the team spent 12 hours commuting on the Friday between driving in their own cars to Dublin, havung a two-hour wait "where lads had to get food in the airport - you should not be eating airport food" - and then after the flight to Milan had to get a 90-min coach trip before finally arriving at their destination. "And we're supposed to be fresh and firing on all cylinders after that? It's not the way a professional team should be travelling.
"The players' leadership group brought it up with [Graham Rowntree] numerous times but his attitude was more or less just get on with it. Overall it's another manifestaction of the ongoing financial spiral. They dont buy big-time players because they'll cost too much so you end up with fewer box-office talents who'll get supporters coming through the turnstiles."
Murray also notes the Munster front office didn't fully utilise the talent at their disposal.
"Another basic oversight was that none of us senior players were ever consulted in advance about various potential signings. We're plugged into a network of information. We'd have already on a lot of our peers in other countries. So you'd think that maybe someone in the organisation might ask for our opinion: What about this fella or that fella? I know there were a few I'd have said straight off the bat: Absolutely fuckin' not."
Murray also highlights "a lack of continuity" in Munster's coaching and identity.
"A new coach on average every two seasons and with it a new gameplan, new calls, new staff, new players, everything always seems to be in transition all the time. That's no way to build a successful organisation."
Graham Rowntree's era in particular failed to address the rot, Murray contends, suggesting that "I'm not sure he was cut out to be a head coach".
"The way he'd spoken to myself and others was, at times, unacceptable. You wouldn't get much inspiration from him in the dressing room. Leams [Denis Leamy] and Prendy [Mike Prendergast] would lead the talks about defence and attack. At half-time when you might need an emotional lift, you'd get practically nothing from him. Again that would come from his two deputies In all honesty, I was relieved when he left. I don't think I was the only one either."
