MUNSTER HAVE DROPPED THE BALL OVER COACHING HANDOVER
Once Erasmus decided to leave, Reds should have had new man in place for this season
IT GRATES TO SEE MUNSTER RUGBY BEING PLAYED LIKE A PUPPET UNTIL IT’S SUITABLE FOR THE CURRENT DUO TO MOVE ON
FIRST off, let me clarify my position in relation to the Munster coaching dilemma. I knew little about David Wessels (or indeed Johann van Graan) other than what I uncovered after Wessels’s name appeared on the rugby radar courtesy of the current head coach.
Prior to Rassie Erasmus backing his fellow South African’s candidacy (and I presume this latest one too), I can state categorically that I hadn’t a breeze who or what his coaching pedigree was. The same applies to Van Graan now.
Suffice to say, I was impressed by what I learned about the ex-Western Force head coach. But seeing, as we all know, is believing and that opportunity will now be denied as Wessels has chosen, rightly in my view given the circumstances, to move his coaching potential from Perth to Melbourne.
The point in relation to age, had he come to Munster, was not directed at the 35-year-old in isolation but was and is a collective comment based on the combined inexperience of the three likely coaches – including Felix Jones (30) and Jerry Flannery (38) – assuming that the new man (whoever he be) is willing to take the remnants of the previous regime back on board.
As I understand it now, the soon-to-be-ratified Van Graan has an exceptional work ethic, did a most impressive interview but has precious little coaching experience as a leader or head coach.
Have we not been down this road of inexperience before when Anthony Foley initially took control of an indigenously assembled management team? Were Erasmus and, by extension, Jacques Nienaber not brought in to assist Foley for that very reason? Likewise at Leinster where Stuart Lancaster’s arrival has been heralded by all, not least Leo Cullen, Girvan Dempsey and John Fogarty, as a master stroke.
COLLECTIVE
Not for a minute am I suggesting that Van Graan or indeed Wessels is not the man for the job because quite simply I don’t know and only time will tell on that. The individual and collective age of the coaching team is an issue, however, because it reflects a lack of experience going forward. How could it be otherwise? You simply cannot put an older, wiser head on younger shoulders in a coaching context.
In that respect, this looks like an ideal opportunity to appoint a seasoned and hugely successful former coach such as Declan Kidney as consultant or indeed as director of rugby in the Erasmus/ Lancaster mode.
On a lesser level, I perform that very role where as director of rugby I appoint coaches at schoolboy level underpinned by the philosophy of the younger the better. I am well in touch with the game at grassroots level but wouldn’t dare consider myself up to calling the shots now on the training field. The game is constantly evolving and to that end coaches still playing or preferably just retired make for the most appropriate fit.
That said, coaching beyond underage demands so much more. Whereas for me when coaching/ selecting ‘good enough was always old enough to play’ and that continues to be the mantra I hold to the highest level and I’m glad to say Joe Schmidt shares that philosophy too.
But there is a flip side to that coin and in strictly coaching terms you cannot put a value on experience. The Village Schoolmaster that is a Kidney will always have so much to offer a Van Graan, a Flannery or a Jones to enable them impart knowledge even more forcibly on the paddock.
My real contention has nothing to do with age per se but with the manner in which this whole ugly mess is being transitioned (a misnomer in itself). If the players are all at sea as to what is going on then who could blame them? It was known last April in the corridors of power at Lansdowne Road and in Munster Rugby (I suspect it might have been know even earlier, perhaps around early January) that Erasmus was leaving yet here we are the best part of a year on and we’re still dealing in speculation rather than confirmation. Once it was known in Munster that this coaching regime was at an end the four months from then (assuming it was April) through the summer represented the most appropriate time to invoke change.
Strange as it may seem to some, I care deeply about Munster rugby and it grates to see it being played like a puppet until it’s suitable for the current duo to move on. I guess the main point of my frustration is that it should never have come to this. There should have been a new or revamped coaching team in place by September ... full stop.
And let me clarify that if David Wessels were to have been the new appointee, I would most certainly not have been prejudging him. Why would I do that? I want whoever is appointed to succeed. I love Munster rugby and everything it stands for... dearly.
The fundamental issue is the process or more accurately the lack of same. It is still difficult to comprehend that at some point before Christmas the two chief coaches are going to depart, up tools and disappear, and that somehow seems acceptable.
SACKED
Tell me what it is I’m missing? It is one thing a coach being sacked mid-season and all that entails, but to know in advance, when both competitions are under way, that a new management team will be taking control, and to agree to that under the guise of ‘easing transition’ truly beggars belief.
Once Erasmus and Nienaber had made their understandable decision to return home, it should have been all systems go for a heavyweight replacement ahead of the new season.
If that is interpreted by some people as a venomous comment on my part, then so be it. Right now from Dunedin to Dingle, Munster rugby is being made to look a mess.
Erasmus made the point some weeks ago that he would have little if any part to play in the appointment of his likely successor. I have to say that from this distance that doesn’t appear to be the case . . .
Elsewhere this afternoon at Templeville Road (kick-off 3.15), the ‘Battle of the Parishes’ takes place as near-neighbours and great rivals St Mary’s College and Terenure come head to head in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League.
As club rivalries go, this is right up there alongside any combination of Shannon, Garryowen and Young Munster on derby days in Limerick.
There is a life beyond the PRO14, Champions Cup and Six Nations and while nowhere near what it once was in terms of crowd attendance, the AIL still offers a quality of rugby and competitive fare to keep the professional game afloat.
So for those new-age Leinster fans who’ve never been to a club game or inside a club ground in their lives, I urge them go along.
They won’t be disappointed.