KIDNEY CAN STILL BE KEY TO MUNSTER REVIVAL
Talk of background role to tackle grassroots rifts and reclaim identity...
WHEN Johann van Graan announced he was upping sticks and heading for Bath in December, the rumour mill went into overdrive. Declan Kidney’s name surfaced on several occasions as a potential replacement.
Who better to turn Munster around than the Corkman who first transformed the province from an amateur outfit into a European force?
The 2006 and 2008 Heineken Cup triumphs remain the benchmark for all other coaches and squads which have followed.
Kidney was earmarked as the perfect director of rugby, an overseer focusing on big-picture stuff like contracts, budgets, recruitment and media, while a carefullysourced team of coaches looked after the on-field duties.
Another high-level operator in the mould of Rassie Erasmus.
Then Graham Rowntree was confirmed as Munster’s next head coach last month and talk around a potential third chapter for Kidney fizzled out.
Soon, speculation turned to Rowntree’s new-look backroom team and the potential candidates.
However, it is believed that there have been discussions between Munster and Kidney about a new position down the road.
Not necessarily as a full-blown director of rugby, but a high-level role focusing on performance and pathways in a bid to replicate the internal production line that has driven Leinster’s success, while simultaneously reclaiming lost culture and identity by forging strong bonds with the schools and clubs.
It makes sense on a lot of levels, not least in terms of having access to that level of proven knowledge of the territory and how to maximise its success.
If this new position comes about, Kidney might not necessarily be sitting next to Rowntree in the coaches box, but the 62-year-old would act as the perfect sounding board for the new Munster supremo.
The Corkman would be the ideal foil to deal with the various chains of command, from the Professional Game Board to the chief executive and all the way to the IRFU and performance director David Nucifora.
At ground level, there would be no better candidate to align the grassroots and streamline a system that has been divided and scattered for far too long.
Kidney’s achievements at the top level have been well documented, with his brace of European titles as well as the 2009 Grand Slam during his stint as Ireland head coach.
He has a long, successful relationship with the schools and club game in the province as well, however, guiding PBC to eight titles (four Munster Junior Cups and four Munster Senior Cups) as well as coaching Dolphin to a groundbreaking promotion to Division One of the All-Ireland League in 1997 – the achievement that sealed his appointment as Munster head coach later that year.
The timing is good, also. There is an exciting batch of youngsters coming through the ranks.
A host of them were on duty in Musgrave Park on Friday night, including Thomas Ahern, Alex Kendellen and Shane Daly.
However, if this recent stream of talent points to a harmonious relationship between Munster HQ, the schools and clubs, it is misleading because that has not been the case for quite some time.
Speak to people within the game at amateur level and you will hear plenty about friction and tension within the system, and Kidney would be instantly required to heal some deep rifts and get this Red machine running more smoothly.
Again, Leinster provide the template here. It is telling that when Stuart Lancaster first arrived at Leinster in 2016, one of his first pieces of business was meeting with the senior schools coaches across Dublin.
Munster are never going to have the same model and resources as their biggest rivals, but it would help to have everyone on the same page.
Peter Scott has been working on the ground at schools and club level for many years. He was coached by Kidney at PBC in Cork and later with Dolphin. A former No8 for the Cork club as well as the Ireland U21s, he has coached PBC, UCC, Sunday’s Well as well as various Munster underage teams and would welcome the return of his former mentor to tackle the grassroots issues in the province – especially in relation to the schools and their fractious relationship with high command at Thomond Park.
‘The schools are the goose that lays the golden egg,’ Scott explains. ‘The schools spend huge amounts of time and money on rugby but they don’t really get the support they need from Munster or from the IRFU.
‘In Munster, it feels like there is a fight between the clubs and schools. The clubs and schools haven’t operated as harmoniously as they might be in other places.
‘The view would be that in Ulster or Leinster, the schools would be held on a pedestal and the branches are working with the schools and acknowledge what they bring and then they run the club game alongside that. They didn’t interfere with one another. They are really supportive of the schools and clubs.
‘The feeling in Munster is that the contribution the schools are making to rugby in Munster is not acknowledged to the same extent as it would be in Leinster or Ulster.’
Some of the problems seem like easy fixes. Not least the optics around some recent high-profile schools fixtures.
‘You look at the Schools Senior Cup this year and you’re seeing quarter-finals and semi-finals taking place on the back-pitch of Thomond Park,’ says Scott, who coached PBC to a Munster Schools Senior Cup victory against Rockwell College in 2010.
‘The Schools Senior Cup should be a flagship event for Munster, the way it is in Leinster and Ulster. It doesn’t seem to be held in the same esteem.
‘That’s the feeling inside the schools. It’s a constant battle for its recognition when the evidence is on the wall that the schools produce great players – like I said, the goose that lays the golden egg.
‘They should be embraced and you should be working along with them while developing the clubs as well, not fighting with them and making it hard for them.’
Talking to people like Scott, who know the workings of rugby in province at ground level so intimately, there is a sense that the whole system could be running a lot more smoothly.
Synergy between all parties is the ultimate goal, especially when you look at the lack of Limerick representation in the current set-up and the rise of the hurlers in recent times. There is a dire need for Munster to maximise their resources to keep pace with Leinster and the elite clubs in Europe.
‘It’s a tiny rugby market,’ Scott adds. ‘It’s small numbers. There’s a couple of schools in Cork playing rugby.
‘There’s a couple of schools in Limerick playing rugby, there’s loads of clubs and everyone is fighting for the same small pool of players, so you can understand why there’s a little friction and tension between the two.’
It is a situation crying out for a mediator, someone who gets the history, understands the friction and has hands-on experience of how to build bridges and make the whole operation run successfully.
That someone could well be Kidney and, if talks have indeed taken place, they should be accelerated towards a vital background position that could revive the province from the ground up while allowing Rowntree to kick on with his front-of-house role.
With no trophy since 2011, Munster need to start thinking big picture.
Schools are the goose that lays the golden egg but don’t get the support
He would be the perfect sounding board for new coach Rowntree