Mouneimne: Defences will be revitalised next season

NEW Exeter Chiefs defence coach Omar Mouneimne is confident the tide will change back in favour of defence at some point soon.

This season’s Gallagher Premiership featured a record 1,038 tries at a rate of 6.8 per game (discounting cancelled matches) – up from 6.4 tries per game the previous season and 5.8 the season before that.

While it made for a brilliant spectacle, defence coaches have had a rough time of it and even an experienced operator like Mouneimne isn’t immune.

“We’re in a golden age of attack and it’s keeping defences on their toes,” said the South African, who will replace Julian Salvi at Sandy Park.

“Now the attack is so fluent and you get such good speed of execution and such enthusiasm around it.

“You look at some teams now at their mid-ruck shape and they are pulling off three different versions in real time in one game.

“They are also exploiting options from kick receipts where they are not just kicking the ball off after two phases but they are engineering really good phase play shape and unpredictable options to create field position.

“As well as executing at speed and varying the attack, teams are more prepared to try high-risk plays – quick tap, cross-field kicks, for example.

“The surprise factor has gone through the roof. Anything can happen at any moment, and it is very exciting.

“If relegation comes (back) in, will they step back a bit? It is possible, but I think it is in the veins of the guys and it makes for a good spectacle too.

“But I think defence will start to catch on again. I think in the season coming, defence coaches will start to come with something new and the enthusiasm will come back. The tides change.”

Having been lauded for his role in helping Bristol win the European Challenge Cup and then top the table in the 2020/21 Premiership season with impressive defensive stats, the South African wasn’t able to have quite the same impact in what turned out to be his final campaign with the Bears.

In finishing a disappointing 10th, Bristol’s tries against count more than doubled from 42 to 98 and their points against total went from 379 the year they topped the table to 718.

“There are so many factors, rugby is not a science where you can just say it is this or that. We tried some new things and just sometimes you get the tweaks wrong,” said Mouneimne, below.

“I think we had a fair amount of injuries in pivotal positions, so it took its toll, we had more internationals away than we usually would, the loss of Siale (Piutau, the defensive leader)… it all adds up.”

Even so, the Bears remained excellent in the collision stakes, Mouneimne’s area of expertise, with only Sale making more dominant tackles than them throughout the campaign.

With Exeter making the least (76 compared to Bristol’s 158), it’s not difficult to see why Chiefs boss Rob Baxter snapped him up before the season had barely come to an end.

“I am more excited about this team than any team in a long, long time,” said the former MMA fighter, who has coached in his native South Africa, Scotland, Italy and France as well as in England.

“I’m coming to a side with that level of excellence that has set the bar so high for so long and has done incredible things: a double that is undeniably brilliant. I can’t wait to get in there and learn from Rob and Ali (Hepher, head coach) and see what makes them tick internally and how they have achieved that success. I am blessed to be going to a squad like that.

Hopefully I can add some value. What is really exciting is I am going into a team that expects to

win.”