Trouble brewing
Tensions simmering between Munster and Leinster as another young prospect heads down south
‘RELATIONS HAVE BECOME STRAINED OVER RECENT YEARS’
APENNY for Leo Cullen’s thoughts this week? Leinster’s head coach looks set to lose two of his most promising tightheads to rival provinces next season. Jack Aungier and Roman Salanoa, both 22 and nearing the end of the apprenticeships in the province’s much-vaunted academy, are set to depart for Connacht and Munster respectively.
It’s a blow for Leinster, who are suitably miffed about this development – make no mistake about it. The academy’s cup runneth over in recent years and the flow of fringe players to the other three provinces – at the behest of the IRFU and its performance director David Nucifora – is an inevitability.
Still, quality tightheads don’t grow on trees even in an organisation with a youth system as prolific at Leinster’s. You could imagine Nucifora hearing Leinster’s grievances with losing two players who they nurtured, supported and developed only to lose them to a rival just when they were set to break into the big time. Imagine investing in a young thoroughbred and getting it primed for the racing circuit only to see a rival trainer roll into the yard to remove your protégé?
Nucifora would point to the fact that Leinster currently have a world class tighthead in Tadhg Furlong on their books with his provincial and national understudy Andrew Porter waiting in the wings.
Despite losing Aungier and Salanoa, they still have Vakh Abdaladze, veteran Kiwi Michael Bent and Tom Clarkson, another promising academy prospect, to add extra bulk to the depth chart.
Munster do not have such luxuries. Johann van Graan’s two leading tightheads, John Ryan and Stephen Archer, are both on the wrong side of 30 while Keynan Knox, who was plucked straight out of the South African schools system, is the only tighthead in the Munster Academy.
You can see why Van Graan sought the services of Salanoa, a raw but hugely promising young prop.
The Hawaiian-born former high school American footballer arrived on these shores in late 2017 to play some AIL rugby with Old Belvedere. Eddie O’Sullivan, who spent years coaching on Stateside, has long believed that gridiron castaways are an untapped rugby source and he recruited the giant Salanoa to seek a new opportunity in this part of the world.
The 125kg prop was quickly inducted into the Leinster academy system and, under the tutelage of scrum specialist John Fogarty, he made huge strides. Cullen described him as a ‘work in progress’ back in August of last year, but now it looks like Munster will reap the rewards in the coming seasons.
Salanoa will be the latest in a long line of Leinster players to make the move to Munster, following the likes of Tadhg Beirne, Joey Carbery, Andrew Conway, Jeremy Loughman and Nick McCarthy to Thomond Park. Skerries flanker Conor Oliver, who missed out on a place in the Leinster academy before plying his trade with Munster, is set to leave for Connacht next season.
Whenever rugby returns to this land, it is conceivable that there could be a Leinster-produced tighthead starting across all four provinces when you consider that Marty Moore – another product of the Leinster system – is currently anchoring the scrum in Ulster.
Keeping the supply chains open for the national team is Nucifora’s prime directive and the Australian has little time for arguments about diluting the provincial rivalries.
Cullen, who has seen a steady flow of his best and brightest head for pastures new in Limerick, Belfast and Galway season after season, captained a Leinster pack containing six locals in that seismic victory over Munster in Croke Park 11 years ago. Munster had eight natives (six from Limerick, one from Cashel and a Corkman) in the forwards for that fateful Heineken Cup clash in 2009.
The landscape is very different these days and there is a decidedly blue tinge to the team sheets across all four provinces nowadays.
Perhaps Cullen was sending a message to Munster last season when he reportedly put in a call to Craig Casey, the most exciting scrum-half to come out of their youth system since Conor Murray.
Cullen already had Luke McGrath and Jamison Gibson-Park on board along with young rookies such as Hugh O’Sullivan and Paddy Patterson but the Leinster boss liked the look of Casey, who has looked the real deal when afforded the opportunity with Munster this season.
Van Graan moved swiftly to quell Leinster’s interest in their prized young half-back with Casey subsequently offered a development contract with a view to a professional deal the following season.
Cullen is always careful and considered in his dealings with the media but that move felt like a shot across the bow to Munster: two can play at this game.
Interestingly, there is only one Limerick native in the 19-strong Munster academy at present: former St Munchin’s College second row Paddy Kelly. The organisation
have made great strides and have uncovered gems such as the Wycherley brothers in west Cork as well as exciting young lock Thomas Ahern from Waterford.
Neither are rugby strongholds in Munster but the lack of fresh talent coming out of the Limerick system remains a cause for concern. This is not a new development either. The fact Dave Kilcoyne is the sole Limerick-born forward in the current senior squad is striking.
Until Munster get all their feeder systems firing on all cylinders, they will continue to lag behind this Leinster juggernaut.
It wasn’t always this way, however. The likes of Cullen will remember a time when players were travelling in the opposite direction up the M7 motorway. Munster were overflowing with quality forwards during their era of dominance between 2006 and 2008. Stephen Keogh, a former Ireland Under 21 captain, looked at the iconic backrowers ahead of him in the queue – Alan Quinlan, David Wallace, Anthony Foley and Denis Leamy – and decided to head for Leinster.
Trevor Hogan saw Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll ahead of him in the pecking order and thought the same. Both were recruited by Michael Cheika.
It’s also worth noting that the abrasive Aussie made a play for Rory Best’s services during the final year of his tenure in 2009.
‘The approach stunned me,’ Best reflected in his autobiography which was released earlier this year. ‘I had never given a thought to moving provinces. It was just not the done thing back then.’
Moving between provinces would soon become the norm.
Some Leinster supporters may also recall the well-publicised feud between Connacht and Joe Schmidt’s Leinster back in 2012. After Mike McCarthy agreed to swap the Sportsground for the RDS, Connacht CEO Tom Sears criticised Leinster for ‘persistently targeting Connacht players in recent years’. Schmidt offered a stinging rebuke.
‘It’s a misconception,’ he said at the time.
‘We don’t choose Connacht players. As I’ve said, Mike McCarthy is not the only Connacht player that has shown an interest in coming to Leinster or a Connacht player that is interested in going to Munster or Ulster. Players, as individuals, look for opportunities. They look for opportunities in their current club or it may be elsewhere.’
The tension between Munster and Leinster has not quite reached that level yet – well, publicly anyway, but there is no doubt that relations have become strained in recent times.
Years later, when Schmidt had risen to the position of Ireland head coach, Carbery was encouraged to switch from Leinster to Munster – a move seen as the best interest for Ireland’s cause heading towards the 2019 World Cup.
Suffice to say, Cullen wasn’t jumping for joy when he learned of that development.
‘We were gutted to lose Joey last year with the investment gone into him,’ he admitted last May.
Cullen better get used to it. Leinster’s stocks have never been higher and their arch rivals are looking to cash in.