To the brave and the faithful, Rowntree must bring change
IF THERE is value to be found in Munster’s latest European exit, it won’t be in the place pinpointed by Johann van Graan. As he continues the long goodbye, the head coach declared an exquisitely tense defeat to Toulouse ‘what Munster rugby is about’. The need for a change in the Munster leadership was evident before Van Graan announced he was off at the end of this season, but if he really believes that the team’s essence can be found in defeat, then another reason why his departure is good news has been found.
That this was just the type of bromide a losing coach tosses out after a dramatic defeat is probably closer to the truth, but Van Graan’s comments are worth scrutinising because of how they’ve been received, and what they say about Munster’s current state.
His words read as if soused in emotion, which is understandable, but allowing for that, there was still an over-emphasis on pride given his team had lost, whatever the circumstances.
‘If ever there’s a day to sum up Munster
it’s today,’ he said, then mentioning the big numbers that travelled north to Aviva Stadium for the encounter.
Van Graan knows enough about the story of the club for a line like that to go down well, because the loss to Toulouse echoes some of the gut-punch defeats Munster teams had to endure in the first decade of the competition.
But that iteration of the province was a team building, whatever the setbacks, towards success. That same impression of inexorable progress is not fostered by this generation.
Yet the Munster legend remains seductive for many, and so there has been widespread acceptance of the Toulouse defeat as simply another teary epic in the annals of the brave and faithful.
That interpretation should be resisted, because if ever there was a sporting set-up that needed to reduce its dependence on the past and its easy temptations, its siren songs, its comforting illusions, it is Munster rugby.
The good that comes out of what happened to Munster in Dublin 4 will manifest itself in the careers of Ben Healy, Craig Casey, Alex Kendellen and Thomas Ahern. The disappointment that will eat into them and the other young players in the squad can become an inspiration to greater things.
The team’s veterans will also use it to push themselves at least one more time towards the rarefied rounds of European competition.
Reading and hearing reaction to the defeat crystallise into an allrugby, too-familiar song of regret brought two men to mind.
One was Michael Cheika, who took over a Leinster team in 2005 that had little in the way of noble disappointment in its history.
Cheika was a talented and canny coach, but another of his virtues was his hardness.
He was as tough as leather, and accounts of his man-management sometimes made for an unsettling read. But he was the classic outsider who brings a perspective to a group that is precisely what they need. Cheika told Leinster what they lacked, and helped them gain it.
Joe Schmidt took Cheika’s foundation and adorned it with a glittering monument to modern rugby. His Irish creation was more functional than the Leinster design but the effect was the same: he introduced a bold new way of not only playing the game, but thinking about it, too.There was no succour in defeat as far as Cheika or Schmidt could see.
Think of the 2013 loss to New Zealand at the Aviva. Ireland had almost done it, but they couldn’t see it through. Schmidt sought no refuge in the atmosphere of the day, or the possibilities that flickered.
The best coaches don’t. Nor do the most ambitious players.
Munster lost to Toulouse in extraordinary circumstances, but the outcome was wearily familiar: they were out and a better team progressed.
Changing that is Graham Rowntree’s job now, and for all the nice comments he might make about life in Limerick, he must realise that significant change is still required.
Rowntree must be Munster’s outsider.