WEDNESDAYS CAN BE MURDER FOR MUNSTER
...but Rowntree says they are a thing of the past
THERE was a time when Munster would have turned up on a Tuesday morning and coach Declan Kidney/skipper Anthony Foley would have ordered ‘Murderball’.
Then again, there as a time when the horse and carriage was primary transport, when Kildare beat Kerry in an AllIreland senior football final and the years using pounds shilling and pence.
Munster coach Graham Rowntree spent 17 years playing at Leicester Tigers, between 1990 and 2007, and he recognises the next-to-violence training concept.
They called it ‘Murderball’ in the wake of disappointing defeats at Munster albeit it was known as ‘Wednesday Mornings’ at Welford Road and equally dreaded.
Method
But, insists Rowntree, the Murderball/Wednesday Morning method, along with Leicester’s world-famed use of letters instead of numbers on the back of the jerseys, is a thing of the past.
Disgusted as he was following Munster’s second listless defeat in two games, annoyed as he was with the handling errors, fuming as he was about the team’s collective indiscipline…
The coach wasn’t for turning the clock back two decades but
Her assistant coaches are Matt Brown, Fiona Hayes and Mike Storey.
The Waterford native (right) also has the role of assistant coach with Ireland. for identifying where the Reds are falling down, going on to cite a virtual shopping list of problems from the first two defeats:
“Trying to force things, that’s not us.”
“There were a lot of occasions where we just didn’t put enough numbers in the breakdown — the breakdown is hot, particularly in this league.”
“There is a reaction speed that needs working on.”
“Ill-discipline, we’ve not had such a high penalty account for a long time.”
“There were some glaring opportunities where if we’ve made better decisions, a better quality of pass, that went a-begging.”
“I can’t say to a guy ‘Stop dropping the ball’ but I can say to a guy ‘We don’t practice that long pass, stick to the plan’.”
“We were trying to be too fancy, trying to make overhead long bridge passes where little hands, little handling things would do.”
Rowntree admits he could have done without two opening defeats to his first shot as being a head coach.
But he is determined not to regress, there is a way he wants the squad the play and to handle the pressure.
Honesty
“I require honesty from the player so they’re gonna get honesty from me, and they’re comfortable with that,” he said.
“We can’t hide away from our inabilities last Sunday but you deal with what’s in front of you and I’ve been around long enough to understand how to speak to people, control my emotions at the right time.”
There is no need for panic, to get emotional, for heads to be banged or fists to fly.
Rather, the coach likes the way the Munster group have trained since season’s return.
“We are certainly not undercooked, we train at intensity, I have never seen us train at such an intensity, I have never seen us as fit, I don’t have to worry about that,” he said.
“A lot of things just didn’t work out for us on the pitch, it’s a lot of stuff that we can control. It is skills under pressure, because that’s not us, that’s controllable.
“Some of our guys made uncharacteristic errors. It is up to me to potentially change a few things in the team. That’s for me to decide ahead of this weekend’s game with Zebre.”
Keith Earls (inset), who injured his hamstring early in last week’s game, didn’t train yesterday which makes him an unlikely starter this weekend and a doubt ahead of the November internationals.
And Rowntree played down Peter O’Mahony ankle injury picked up near the close, for which he couldn’t be subbed because the bench was cleared. “At this point, Peter is not serious at all,” said the coach, “we’ll wait and see what happens in selection later in the week.”