Graham Rowntree ‘knew it wasn’t going to be easy’ in Munster hot seat

Graham Rowntree has denied that his new role as Munster head coach after being promoted in the wake of Johan van Graan’s departure to Bath has proven more difficult than he could have envisaged.

This is despite Munster suffering their third defeat in the opening four games by 20-11 against Connacht in the Sportsground last Friday night. Their only win has been at home to Zebre, which leaves them 12th in the table and already 13 points behind Leinster and 10 adrift of second-placed Ulster.

“No, it’s tough. That’s coaching. It’s fixing things, finding solutions, moving forward; fixing them, working to the next game,” said Rowntree. “I’ve been around long enough. Obviously it’s a different context being the head coach but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Munster have lacked penetration and have been blighted by handing errors and have conceded 52 penalties.

“We’ve changed how we’re doing things. We’ve not reinvented the wheel but we’ve changed things and I can see the changes, the improvements coming through. But we just have to eradicate errors, eradicate penalties, improve our discipline.

“It’s my job to do that, and the coaches, and to manage those young coaches, it’s my job. We’ll keep doing that, that’s all we can physically do, day in, day out.

“Expectations, I don’t know, I’ve had none put on me as such. I want to win the next game. I want to improve every week, I want to win the next game, that’s what I’ll keep driving.”

Connacht were rejuvenated by playing their first game of the season at the Sportsground and Rowntree is hopeful that Munster’s first game of the campaign at Thomond Park, against the Bulls next Saturday, will galvanise his side.

“We are spoiled as players and coaches to have such great support as we do with the Munster fans. I’m sure they’ll be right behind us at Thomond which is now a huge game.

“It’s always going to be a huge game, particularly against the Bulls. We know what’s coming from the Bulls so we drive on. We’ll look at this game Monday, fix things, drive training, see what selection brings. We’ve got some guys coming back from South Africa and we’ll look forward to the next game after Monday.”

Peter O’Mahony will be assessed over the next few days. “He came off with a neck/shoulder injury but he’s tough as teak is Pete and we’ll see how he pulls up.”

Like Rowntree, Andy Friend will await the return of his Emerging Ireland contingent on Tuesday, although given Cian Prendergast played against the Cheetahs on Sunday and Connacht next host Leinster on Friday night, the odds are against his involvement.

Leinster sit top after scoring 21 tries in four games, making last Friday night’s first win of the season in front of a 7,500-plus crowd timely for Connacht.

“For all three, fans, players, organisation – hey, for the coaches as well – we needed this. It is a great way to kick off our maiden voyage on the 4G pitch.

“We hopefully have learned from our previous failings as a team where we play a good game and then we drop off the intensity. I am just looking for intensity next week. If that is good enough to beat Leinster, brilliant. If it is not then at least we have shown intensity and that is what we need to keep bringing, those high levels of physicality to our game.”