This is the third of five articles I have written on the prospects for Ireland and the Irish provinces this coming season. My reviews of Connacht and Ulster are published here and here.
Having written two relatively upbeat posts on Connacht and Ulster, it would have been nice to be able to do the same for Munster. They did, after all, qualify for the play-offs last May and qualify for the Champion’s Cup. But that is slim pickings for a province that has won the European Cup twice and won the URC as recently as 2023. Losing to the Bulls on the high veldt in Loftus Versfeld is no disgrace, but they weren’t really competitive when losing by 45-14 and 6 tries to 2.
Unfortunately, there are few indications that their fortunes are about to change in 2026/7.
Munster have a large squad of 43 players compared to Connacht 39 and Ulster 41 with Leinster also on 43, but with half the Leinster squad likely to be away for international duty for much of the season. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Munster, but it was still shocking that no Munster player started the recent test against Australia. And therein lies the problem. Too many of the Munster squad are just bang average by the rising standards of the URC and only Tadgh Beirne stands out as world class.
Munster have 18 test players on their books compared to 15 for Ulster and 16 for Connacht but only one or two are first choice for Ireland and most of the rest are very much fringe candidates. Given their traditions and with 10 props in the squad, you would expect scrummaging was one of their strengths, but they struggled to survive against the big SA packs. None of their frontline props were actually developed by Munster and it is a long time since the glory days of John Hayes, Keith Wood, Frankie Sheehan, Jerry Flannery, Peter Clohessy, and Marcus Horan when Munster developed their own test class front rows.
For the past ten years Munster have also relied mainly on overseas coaches – Rassie Erasmus, Johann Van Graan, Graham Rowntree and Clayton McMillan – who have all distinguished themselves elsewhere. Somehow their magic hasn’t worked for Munster. Felix Jones and Jerry Flannery, now starring with the Springbok coaching ticket, left of their own accord in 2019 in unexplained circumstances. The highly rated Mike Prendergast left after being passed over in the race to succeed Graham Rowntree.
All that said, Munster are probably at the same level as Connacht and Ulster. The problem is that while the latter provinces look to be on the way up, Munster have been on the way down since their last URC win in 2023, and even that was their first win in 12 years. Their last win in the European Champions cup a distant memory in 2008.
Munster sacked their Head coach, Graham Rowntree, not long after that 2023 win, and little has gone right for them since. The successful candidate, Clayton McMillan, was the latest to suffer an embarrassment – having his choice for attack coach, Roger Randle, selected and then fired by Munster following a social media storm over sexual misconduct allegations twenty years earlier which never went to court. Board members resigned because they hadn’t been consulted. An independent consultant’s review of “governance procedures” going forward – rather than investigation of what has gone wrong in the past – is currently underway. Clayton McMillan expressed doubts about where his future lay.
All in all, not the best environment for long term planning and player development. Even Munster’s player recruitment has been characterised by short term thinking and plugging holes rather than enhancing the team’s long term potential. Whereas once Munster were able to attract world class talent like Doug Howlett, Christian Cullen, CJ Stander, Damian De Allende and RJ Snyman, Munster now make do with recruiting journeyman pros like the 36 year old Kieran Brookes, Will Harrison, Marnus van Der Merve and Jack Aungier (third choice at Connacht).
Rivalries between Cork and Limerick based players and clubs probably haven’t helped. A lot of players who showed great promise at u.20 level haven’t kicked on into the first team – only about half of which is made up of Munster developed players. Munster supporters frequently complain that Leinster’s bigger population puts them at a disadvantage, but there is nothing other than cronyism stopping them recruiting from Leinster schools and clubs as the other provinces do. Leinster generally take in only about 6 players into their academy each year and have so far announced none for this season.
This year Munster are letting 11 players go, including three retirements – Niall Scannell, John Ryan and Oli Jager. The players leaving are Jean Kleyn (Gloucester), Thaakir Abrahams (Bulls), and Tony Butler, Paddy Patterson, Andrew Smith, Fionn Gibbons, Conor Bartley, and Roman Salanoa – none of whom have secured a contract with another top level club. In addition to the four joiners mentioned above, five players are joining from the academy – Ronan Foxe (Tight head), Sean Edogbo (flanker), Max Klein (hooker), Ben O’Connor (full back) and Ben O’Donovan (scrum half). Let us hope that, unlike so many of their predecessors, they develop into test and even world class players. Munster could do with a few.
For all of the above mentioned problems, the feeling persists that a first team made up entirely of at least fringe test quality players should be capable of doing better. My sense is that most of the problems reside at management levels above the Head Coach and that that is where the ultimate accountability should lie. If they require a consultant to tell them how to manage correctly, perhaps some shouldn’t be holding down well paid senior management positions in the first place.
If players and their coaches can be sacked on an ongoing basis, perhaps it is time to look at the past 18 years of decline and ask whether the failure isn’t more one of a lack of vision, long term planning, and strategy at the top of the organisation. The IRFU should be looking for more of a return on their considerable investment over the last 18 years. Tadgh Beirne and half the first team weren’t even developed by Munster.
I’m not holding my breath.
Prediction: Munster should be good enough to make the top eight play-offs in the URC. They are in an average Champion’s Cup group with Racing 92, Bristol, Bordeaux, Stormers and Gloucester, and should qualify for the knock-out round of 16 with only 8 of the 24 teams eliminated by that stage. After that we are relying on their famous cussedness in the face of adversity. I wouldn’t put it past them to to confound their detractors and go a long way in that competition. A little visionary leadership from their top management (and support for their coaching staff) would help.
Frank Schnittger is the author of Sovereignty 2040, a future history of how Irish re-unification might work out. He has worked in business in Dublin and London and, on a voluntary basis, for charities in community development, education, restorative justice and addiction services.
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