This Munster team has grown old together

Charlie Mulqueen
OF course it’s the end of an era.
The Munster team that we have known, admired and loved for more than a decade is on its last legs. Anno domini has seen to that. Too many of the side that crashed to defeat in Toulon on Sunday, having failed in their earlier away games against London Irish and Ospreys, are past it and there’s no point in suggesting otherwise.
True, few on either side were going better at the end in Toulon than the 34 year-old David Wallace. He has always been a great warrior and a great player. The chances are that he will figure in Declan Kidney’s plans for Ireland in the forthcoming Six Nations Championship and in next autumn’s World Cup.
And that will be it for Wally. And with due respect to John Hayes, Marcus Horan, Mick O’Driscoll and Alan Quinlan and maybe even Ronan O’Gara, Peter Stringer and Jerry Flannery, much the same applies to them as well. All are well into their thirties. Fiercely competitive and unforgiving professional sporting arenas like Test and European Cup rugby take their toll of the fittest, never mind those who have been through it for a decade and more and whose bodies have taken a shocking hammering.
Most if not all of those players I have quoted have suffered serious injuries at some stage of their careers. Look at the talismanic Paul O’Connell. He was out for the best part of the last year with a mysterious groin complaint. He will soon come back to his best and he and Donncha O’Callaghan will shake off the disappointment of Heineken Cup failure to serve province and country well over the next year and more. Even they, however, have passed their 31st birthdays.
The grim fact is that, whether we like it or not, this Munster team has grown old together.
Does this all mean that the Red Army will have little to cheer for a long time to come? Maybe - but I doubt it. In spite of a series of moderate performances, they are nine points clear of their closest pursuers in the Magners League and pretty sure of a home semi-final. Hopefully, too, Paul O’Connell was right in the immediate aftermath of Toulon in declaring that the province has a wealth of young talent coming through. No doubt, he had the likes of Duncan Williams, Felix Jones, Scott Deasy, Darragh Hurley, Dave Ryan, Mike Sherry, Ian Nagle, Peter O’Mahony, Billy Holland and Tommy O’Donnell in mind. And, yes, they are a band of committed, able players and there are others like them who carry a lot of potential.
Equally, though, there were many of similar calibre over the last ten years - but they had at least two hugely important advantages to avail of. Primarily, there was a fiercely competitive All-Ireland Club League that rewarded the strong and found out the weak. That situation doesn’t prevail today - nor is the B & I League for A teams any radical solution. Secondly, it was possible for these players to be gradually and wisely fed into the first XV alongside the more established brethern. The second-row is a classic example. Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll had to work their socks off to displace the legendary Mick Galwey and John Langford, who remains Munster’s greatest ever overseas acquisition. Likewise, Anthony Foley didn’t make it plain sailing for Denis Leamy at number eight.
Mention of Langford raises the subject of the kind of overseas player Munster can hope to acquire now that the IRFU’s coffers are more than a little stretched. Toulon are currently on course to proving that success can be bought in terms of recruiting talent from the Southern Hemisphere and the Pacific Islands but to do so they needed the financial clout of Mons Mourad Boudjellal, their eccentric owner who has made a fortune out of comics!
The Irish Union aren’t even close to that kind of league and are fortunate in that Leinster are able to field an outstanding side largely composed of home-bred talent just like Munster over the past decade or more. Considerable sums have been sent north to help Ulster remain among Europe’s finest and they recently won a Heineken Cup game with five South Africans in their starting line-up.
It was hoped that Munster’s well chronicled problems at scrum time could be resolved by hiring South African Wian Du Preez and New Zealander Peter Borlase. That may yet prove to be the case but the jury is very much out on that one. Nor is it likely that other “foreigners” like Doug Howlett, Lifeimi Mafi and Sam Tuitupou will be around for long more while I‘m just one of many who deeply regrets that agreement couldn‘t have been reached with Paul Warwick before he signed for Stade Francais.
When the World Cup is over, a number of big names will become available but it remains to be seen whether Munster can afford them or if they will want to join a team in transition.
Sooner or later a post mortem will be held. Munster may well regain the Magners League but for the majority, failure to reach the match-play stages of the Heineken Cup for the first time in thirteen years will dominate. The players will be asked to explain where they came up short - so, too, must the management give an account of its stewardship. Focus will certainly centre on head coach Tony McGahan. But the other coaches and most notably Lawrie Fisher, who oversaw the forward pack, will assuredly come under pressure.
Have no doubt that we will be told forcefully and often over the next few weeks and months that Munster rugby is still in a good place. Words are easy, actions another thing altogether, and all concerned have a long road to travel to prove that this is not a team in crisis and that the future is as bright as they would have us believe.

 

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/oTnKjzkK8yE/post.aspx

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