Foley to pack down with Munster for another year
Foley has been on secondment with the Irish camp under Declan Kidney, serving as a temporary forwards coach last November during a medical absence for Gert Smal and then as temporary defence coach throughout the Six Nations.
His appointment to Ireland’s summer tour coaching ticket led by interim boss Les Kiss and under the watchful eye of incoming head coach Schmidt put Foley in the shop window for full-time membership of the New Zealander’s new backroom staff and though the possibility of further secondments remains, Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald said yesterday the province’s forwards coach was staying put for at least another 12 months.
“Anthony Foley has agreed terms to extend his contract, for one year,” Fitzgerald said. “The reason why it’s one year is that what we’re trying to do is to be sensible in managing the management team’s contract so they’re all at the same termination date. It makes it easier for the long-term management.”
While Foley stays, Fitzgerald confirmed scrum coach Paul McCarthy would not have his contract renewed beyond this season, an apparent victim of cost-cutting despite earning widespread praise for his work on the Munster set-piece.
“Paul has been on a one-year fixed term contract with us and in our re-organisation of our whole set-up we have decided not to renew that contract as of now,” the chief executive said. “We have, I suppose, a reorganisation all across Munster rugby which has to take into account the economic climate and we haven’t renewed Paul’s fixed term contract.”
Asked if McCarthy’s departure meant an increased coaching role for tighthead prop BJ Botha, who this week signed a two-year contract extension, head coach Rob Penney replied “hopefully” but expressed his regret at the Corkman’s removal from the role.
“Paul has been a valuable member of the group and he will be sadly missed but hopefully Macca will be able to come and still fulfil some role within the group as a technical advisor, support person, for the young guys,” Penney said.
“But fundamentally someone like BJ will need to take a greater role and there is one or two others in the group that need to step up and give us the technical needs that this still-developing group needs.”
Fitzgerald revealed Munster had been given special dispensation by the IRFU to retain South African Botha under the governing body’s new player succession policy which restricts Leinster, Munster and Ulster to one non-Irish qualified player per position between the three provinces. Botha’s future in Ireland appeared bleak given former All Blacks tighthead John Afoa’s presence at Ulster but the chief executive said the Springbok’s role as a mentor to the young Munster props was taken into account.
“When they made the regulations they allowed for exceptions to the rule. We applied for an exception to the rule purely based on the fact that we have a very good crop of young props coming forward and we felt that as part of their development, and they have actually speeded up in their development in the latter part of the year, we needed to have an experienced tighthead prop, which is obviously the harder of the two positions to play in and the one that probably has the bigger influence on team performance.”
Fitzgerald implied, however, that part of the quid pro quo in retaining Botha was having to exercise an option to release former Springbok loosehead Wian Du Preez a year before his contract was due to expire in June 2014.
“Given our situation that we were only allowed to have one overseas prop, really, the option was taken out of our hands,” Fitzgerald said of Du Preez’s situation.
Also out of Munster’s hands is the one-year contract extension offer on the table for Ronan O’Gara; the chief executive yesterday restating the position that the province was giving the veteran fly-half all the time he needed to make his decision.
“We’ve offered Ronan an extension, a one-year extension to his contract, and he’s just asked for time to consider it. I think he’s well entitled to that given the stage he’s at and what he’s committed to the province.”
