Outside voice just what Munster rugby needs, says business expert

Dr Oliver Browne, a lecturer at University College Cork Business School believes Avan Lee is ideally placed to initiate the change he sees as vital for restoring Munster to Europe’s rugby elite

Munster's new CEO Avan Lee has been backed by a business academic to realign the performance and commercials sides of the house at the financially-pressured province. Pic: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images.

There is a long to-do list on the desk of Munster Rugby’s new chief executive but as Avan Lee settles into the hot seat this week, the New Zealand has been backed by a business academic to realign the performance and commercials sides of the house at the financially-pressured province.

Dr Oliver Browne, a lecturer at University College Cork Business School believes Lee is ideally placed as both a former Super Rugby CEO and an outsider to the organisation to initiate the change he sees as vital for restoring Munster to Europe’s rugby elite.

He also thinks Munster supporters, among which he counts himself, should be optimistic that the IRFU have made a good appointment in their choice to replace the departing Ian Flanagan, who announced his decision to step down on October 1 after seven years at the helm.

The former Clontarf player, who has also spent time in Dublin as a commercial consultant to World Rugby, Lee has joined on an initial 12-month contract and has already made public his desire to stay well beyond that interim role.

He will inherit an organisation whose economic issues have led to a round of limited redundancies among its 100-strong non-professional rugby staff this summer and which reported a €1 million capital deficit in its most recent accounts, for 2024-25, and is forecasting a similar loss for the season just passed.

It is also a province which instituted an Independent Governance and Organisational Review in the wake of its failed attempt to hire a new attack coach, Roger Randle, whose contract was cancelled by mutual consent following procedural mis-steps and a public backlash to the resurfacing of historic rape allegations against the candidate.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Dr Browne said: “The best thing about Avan Lee is he's an outsider. One of the issues with Munster has been, and the governance review will more than likely bear this out, that there's a sense of being unwilling to change things because it's the way things are and have been done.

“The ‘alickadoos’ have too much control over the game within Munster, and someone from the outside coming in, especially the likes of Avan Lee who is so well respected and has so much experience, I think he'll be able to stand up to things that he sees as being not the way things should be done.

“And if Avan Lee leaves within the 12 months, which could be much worse, we'll know that Munster Rugby has not changed its stripes, and that will be depressing.

“I think he's someone who understands the business. He's someone who understands rugby, which is a fundamental difference between what's gone before, and he knows what should and shouldn't be happening at this level of an organisation where Munster's ambitions lie.” 

Browne added this was also an opportunity for a Munster head coach not be “held back” by the structures in place around them.

“The governance issues, I think Avan Lee will know this is something he can make his stamp with.

“He can clean up the game internally in Munster, but I think he will more use that to evidence the best practice elsewhere and support turning Munster around in that. I think that the findings will basically say that ‘we've done things wrong’. There's too many people making decisions that don't relate to the company and there's too much focus on the short term with no clear strategy.

“That's what every fan has been seeing for the past few years. The cost-cutting is dire because obviously it's not like we haven't had good coaches. If you think about the coaches that we've had, Johann van Graan, Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, and they go and they stay in Munster for two or three years now.

"Okay, Rassie is different because he went back to South Africa, it was a calling, but the other coaches leave because they're frustrated at Munster and they go on to have exceptionally successful careers elsewhere.

“It's not like we're not getting the talent and the coaches. It's that Munster is the thing holding them back. The structure of Munster above them is holding them back from performing on the field. They're not being given all of the tools and resources they need to do that.

“That's where Avan Lee comes in, first day. Clayton McMillan is an excellent coach. How do we support Clayton McMillan in doing what he needs to do, which is delivering on the pitch?

“That's something that's been missing. It’s ‘what resources do you need? How much can we do it? Can we provide it for you? Here's everything you need’.

“Now, if it goes to pot from there, it's not the governance structure's fault. And that's the separation of responsibility that has been impeded in recent years.”