Mossy Lawler: Munster's Crowley boost, injury toll and attack coach vacancy

Jack Crowley of Munster. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Munster will welcome back a “massive leader” in Jack Crowley for their URC play-off push but Mossy Lawler has confirmed fears that other key players could be miss the rest of the season.

Assistant attack coach Lawler welcome Tuesday’s news that Ireland fly-half Crowley would be available for Saturday night’s visit to Connacht for the penultimate match of the URC regular season campaign, the only one of six casualties from Munster’s previous league outing, a 41-14 derby victory at home to Ulster on April 25.

Crowley was forced out of the game before kick-off after sustaining a leg knock during the warm-up, while Munster captain Tadhg Beirne (knee), fellow lock Jean Kleyn (bicep), centre Tom Farrell (shoulder), wing Calvin Nash (hamstring) and tighthead prop Oli Jager (head) all failed to finish the Thomond Park win.

While Crowley has been cleared for the trip to Galway this weekend, the other five have been ruled out and though Lawler would not confirm talismanic skipper Beirne was one of those injuries signalled post-match by head coach Clayton McMillan as “season enders” the assistant coach did speak of big losses for the business end of the campaign.

“He won't be available this weekend anyway,” Lawler said of Beirne.

“With the five that were spoken about, big losses. Obviously, to take five points against Ulster was massive, but we did take that big injury toll off the back end of it.

“Some of our big players miss out, but where there's injuries, there's opportunities and loads of lads chomping at the bit to get in this week and play a massive game, massive inter-pro versus Connacht in the Sportsground.” 

Crowley appears certain to step straight back in at number 10 having been replaced at the last minute by JJ Hanrahan for the Ulster match and Lawler said: “Jack is a quality player, a quality operator.

“I think he showed that through the Six Nations in relation to, I suppose, how he bounced back and showed his resilience and showed just how quality a rugby player he is. Massive leader for us both on and off the pitch, so to have him available this weekend is huge for us.” 

With the other quintet declared unavailable, Fineen Wycherley has returned to training this week following a knee injury and could feature for the first time since Munster’s defeat to the Bulls in Pretoria on March 28. 

There was also positive news on long-term knee injury absentee Roman Salanoa, the tighthead prop whose most recent senior appearance came in the URC Grand Final victory at Stormers in May 2023. 

Salanoa, who featured for Nenagh Ormond in the AIL earlier this season, played 20 minutes as a replacement for Munster A in last Friday’s win over Connacht Eagles in Galway and in the words of Munster’s squad update on Tuesday, “moved a step closer to first team action”.

The tighthead will probably be given a further run out for Munster A when they play a return fixture against Connacht Eagles this Friday (2pm) at Ennis RFC but Lawler had words of sympathy for the ill luck experienced by another injury-hit prop in Jager. 

This latest setback followed an extended absence for a concussion earlier in the season which saw the former Canterbury front-rower travel for treatment in the United States. 

The one-cap Ireland international also suffered a foot injury three games into his return to play in January and had only returned the previous week, off the bench at Benetton.

“We only think of the individual and the person,” Lawler said. “Oli is such a great guy and brilliant around the group. He’s a world-class operator when he's on the pitch.

“Unfortunately we just haven't had him on the pitch as much as we'd like, so concerns are obviously there.

“He’s obviously not available this week, but it'll be week-by-week and we'll progress him as he's fit and able to do so.” 

Lawler was also put on the spot about recent off-the-field controversies involving Munster Rugby, one of which saw Roger Randle named as Mike Prendergast’s successor as attack coach before the move was quashed by mutual consent. 

Lawler appears to be back in the frame once more as his departing colleague Prendergast’s replacement but he declined to make public his feelings on the vacancy.

“That's not something I'm willing to comment on, this week in particular. The powers that be will decide that in the future.

“I'm just focused on the here and now. Massive game this weekend, so that's where my head is, and is staying.” 

Nor would he discuss any potential challenges for the playing and management groups within the high-performance set-up while Munster Rugby was dealing with the fallout from the abandoned Randle appointment and the province’s request for voluntary redundancies.

“Everything's a challenge in pro rugby. For us as a group, we're fairly tight-knit and our focus has just been inside our camp and focus on what we can control.

“I think we've left ourselves in a really good position for the end of the season, in relation to, we take points where it's in our own control, so that has been our sole focus.” 

Also fielding questions on non-playing matters on Tuesday were back-rowers Alex Kendellen and Gavin Coombes. Kendellen, who is set to earn his 100th Munster cap in his next appearance, addressed the outside noise and potential distractions.

"I think it's been pretty easy to ignore it,” Kendellen said. “It's within the four walls of upstairs in the meeting room. All we're doing is trying to focus on winning a trophy for Munster and sending the likes of Mike Prendergast off with a trophy.

“There's players finishing up this year and it's all been focused on winning a trophy for Munster, and that's it."

Coombes added: “Munster is such a big club, and it's always in the media, there's always something being said about Munster.

“That's all outside noise and no matter what's going on, it’s this group in the High Performance Centre, it's nothing to do with us. No one's been talking about it and it's all been focused on what we can do on the weekend.

“I just think that's all outside noise, and we've had this every year. Same last year when we came down to the last two games where we had to win and there was outside noise again.

"We're such a close group that we can stick together and stay on task, and I think that's kind of what we've done. It’s just always been part of this club and I think it will be going forward as well.”