Munster coach Mossy Lawler's ‘no comment’ says it all

Skills and assistant attack coach Mossy Lawler during Munster squad training at the University of Limerick. Pic: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

When a Munster coach declines to comment on whether he or his colleagues have even held discussions with the decision-makers who have helped plunge the province into its present crises, you begin to understand the disconnect that must currently exist within the organisation that employs them.

So it was on Tuesday as assistant coach Mossy Lawler and two players, Alex Kendellen and Gavin Coombes, faced the media from the safe remove of a Microsoft Teams call.

The interaction, customarily held in person at Munster’s High Performance Centre in Limerick ahead of a fixture at the weekend, was primarily to discuss the upcoming URC derby at Connacht, with Munster travelling to Galway this Saturday looking to further secure their position in the league’s top eight.

Two games of the regular season remain and confidence is growing after back-to-back victories that a top-four finish is within reach.

Those wins, away to Benetton and then at home to Ulster a week later on April 25, have reignited a season which had been heading for the rocks with the prospect of missing out on both the URC knockout rounds and Champions Cup rugby in 2026-27 a genuine possibility.

Though there is still work to be done in that regard heading into this penultimate round, belief on the pitch has been restored.

Off-field matters, however, have overtaken on-field performances in terms of importance, from Munster Rugby’s request to staff members for voluntary redundancies in recent weeks to the controversy of its decision to appoint Roger Randle as attack coach for next season despite unease both from within the organisation and in the wider provincial rugby community, over historic rape allegations against the New Zealander, which he has always denied.

There have been resignations from both Munster’s Professional Games Board and Commercial Advisory Group and yet questions surrounding such off-field matters continue to be unanswered but very much persist.

Yet it is the professional athletes and the people who prepare them to be at their competitive best rather than the organisation’s decision-makers who are placed in the firing line and last week’s decision, by mutual consent, to abandon the hiring of Randle, has only raised further questions.

The perception is of generals leaving the rank and file under their command to deal with problems not of their making.

On Tuesday, a week on from the about-face on Randle, assistant attack and skills coach Lawler was not unreasonably asked for his thoughts on a position for which he had been seen as the front runner to succeed Mike Prendergast, the senior coach whose decision to leave Munster in February created the vacancy which has caused so much trouble.

Yet his interest in that position and any information flow from above on the current state of affairs within the province were off limits.

“I don’t have any comment to make on that,” Lawler said when asked if had been spoken to staff on those issues.

“With all due respect, I’m here to talk about Connacht and the big game we have ahead. I don’t have any further comment on anything else.”

A follow-up question seeking confirmation on contact from above with coaching staff and players was met with: “I’m not going to comment on that.”

As for the vacancy, Lawler said: “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.”

Also fielding questions on non-playing matters were back-rowers Kendellen and Coombes. Kendellen, set to earn his 100th Munster cap in his next appearance, said the outside noise had been “pretty easy to ignore”.

“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.”