‘People either embrace change… or they rebel.’
In a nutshell, smashed and scattered over Cork and Limerick, that is what Rob Penney found when he was head coach at Munster.
The New Zealander had two season at Munster – from June 2012 to June 2014 – but moved to Japan after only being offered a one-season extension by the province and the IRFU.
Penney was nothing but frank and honest about his time at Munster in a fascinating interview on The Hard Yards. One of the many issues he faced upon taking over was what he and several of his coaching team considered to be a squad that was unable to challenge the top teams if they were without many of their top stars.
“I still believe that the squad were capable of doing what we were [asking], particularly when we had our top squad available,” he said.
“We would have moved eight or nine players out of that squad in year one and we moved a very similar amount in year two. It was because the quality of players we would have had in the support squad, if you like – the PRO12 squad when the internationals were not available – was not of a standard to be competitive. We inherited that group.
“The core group was very capable of playing the brand that we were after. That second tier, probably not.”
Penney is convinced that the Munster squad was looking strong after his second season at the helm and would have improved even more in his third season had it worked out that way.
One of the main changes Penney wanted Munster to embrace was bringing in talents from rival Irish provinces. The likes of Leinster’s Dominic Ryan and Luke Fitzgerald were both linked with Munster moves during the Kiwi’s time at Thomond Park but neither found full, unstinting approval.
Ulster centre Chris Farrell was also considered but Penney could not get a swift decision on the move and the Tyrone native ended up going to Grenoble in France’s Top 14. Interestingly, he moved to Munster in the summer after some involvement from Ireland coach Joe Schmidt.
On his struggles to recruit from within Irish shores, Penney said:
“We were very, very proactive about trying to recruit better Irish players from within Ireland. That was very challenging too, because there was a lot of discourse about bringing outsiders into Munster. But it needed to be done because the talent just wasn’t in Munster.
“The academy, at the time, just wasn’t functioning as it needed to be and there was a re-fitting and energy behind the scenes to whip up the academy to where it was starting to develop more talent. I think we’re seeing more of a by-product of that now, which is awesome.”
Jack O’Donoghue, Rory Scannell, Darren Sweetnam and Alex Wootton are some of the senior players at Munster that were at the province’s academy during Penney’s time in charge. The Kiwi felt a few smart signings from rival provinces would have tided Munster over until those young stars pushed through into the senior squad but he appears to found stern opposition from some within the Munster ranks.
Having brought Munster to three semi-finals [two Heineken Cup, one PRO12] in his two seasons at the province, it is a shame that Penney found his way blocked on bringing in some fresh Irish faces.
Interestingly, on the subject of dream signings from provincial rivals, Ronan O’Gara recently said:
“I’m delighted we don’t see more [players swapping between provinces]. It impacts so much more on a rugby player. It’s everything about you, as a character, a person.
“I can understand the absolute cases of desperation about a guy but I think it’s like, for example, me going and joining Leinster when I was playing. It cannot be done, for everything you stand for in life. There’s far more too it than just a rugby transfer.
O’Gara added, “The guys like Jack Conan and Dan Leavy, for example, are true Leinster players. For the sake of them getting an opportunity… they’re stubborn, determined and they want to perform for Leinster and then they feel they are good enough to play for Ireland.”
When the prospect of Munster ever moving for Connacht lock Ultan Dillane was raised, however, O’Gara remarked, “Ultan Dillane is from Tralee, isn’t he?”
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