Incoming interim CEO Avan Lee eager to draw line under Munster's negative media coverage

Avan Lee speaks to the media during a press conference. Pic: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Munster Rugby’s incoming interim CEO wants to quickly draw a line under the negative media coverage he has been reading about the organisation he is set to lead for at least the next 12 months and start galvanising the province behind its teams.

Avan Lee will draw on his experiences of aligning the business side of the Hurricanes Super Rugby franchise he led for a decade in his native New Zealand with the high-performance arm of the Wellington outfit as he bids to fix what he sees as a disconnect between those two facets of the Munster Rugby set-up.

An Independent Governance and Organisational Review of the province is set to be delivered to the board shortly and Lee has had no prior sight of the report but speaking on Wednesday ahead of his arrival in Cork to start work on October 21, he said he needed to conduct his own deep dive into the way Munster was run.

"To be honest, it needs a bit of a... Well, it does. It needs a non-financial audit,” Lee, 52, said. "Sit down and go through the whole organisation, the systems, the structure.

"You know, is it high performing? Is the whole organisation high performing? Is it aligned?

“I've read a lot of commentary in the media, which is fine. But obviously, with the IRFU and with Munster Rugby Board, I need to work through that stuff myself.

"But clearly, there are some challenges, and there have been some issues through the media. And obviously, you don't want that going forward. You want to draw a line under some of that stuff and focus on the positives and how you make the organisation better.

"But yeah, certainly from the review, I've not seen a word so it's not fair for me to comment on what I think might be in it. I genuinely don't know."

Lee added: “For me, it's really about galvanising the community of Munster and Munster Rugby fans behind the organisation and the teams.

“I haven't started, so I'm not going to be too specific yet, because I don't necessarily know the answer. But it's obvious there's been some controversy, some stories through the media, and people being critical of Munster rugby.

“So, clearly, going forward, that's not acceptable. You know, the organisation needs to be performing. And you want your fans to love the teams.

“So for me, it's about alignment of vision, values, culture, whatever words you want to use. Because if you're not really effective in all of those areas, it's difficult to be successful.” 

Munster unfavourable media coverage has come as a result of a turbulent few months which have resulted in the departure of current CEO Ian Flanagan after seven years at the helm. 

The Independent Review was commissioned by the Rugby Board following the controversial, failed attempt to hire Roger Randle as attack coach, and a round of voluntary and involuntary redundancies due to economic restraints, which arose from a reported capital deficit for 2024-25 of €1 million, with a similar forecast for last season’s accounts, 2025-26.

Asked if his 10-year experience as Hurricanes CEO, which ended last December, had parallels with Munster’s current plight, Lee said: “Yeah, I think so. I think when I joined the Hurricanes, my perception of Munster is there's a bit of a disconnect between high-performance rugby and business and that was exactly the same when I joined the Hurricanes.

“I come from a commercial business background, but I have worked in high performance for 20 years, so I do understand both and it's critical to have alignment between the two.

“So that would be the most obvious one. Second to that, and not less important, is the importance of recruitment, pathway development, and bringing players through for four, five, six years together. The Hurricanes have just won Super Rugby, and that's a major reason why we did. We had, I think, five All Blacks when I started. When I left, we had 12. So I think having international players in your squad is very important.

“Recruiting well, if they're not locals, and keeping a team together, developing over time, I think there's a big opportunity with Munster. You look at the under-20 players who've come through and the Irish set-up. I was watching Gordon Wood and Charlie O'Shea and guys like that at the weekend who are young men but if they're together for four, five years, that could be an awesome team.

“So I think that's the other part of it. But also the importance of commercial, having the revenue to drive high performance and be successful and create an environment where people can succeed.

“Again, I don't know a massive amount about the revenue profile, but the demand on that is never diminishing. So it's a key part of it too.”