Munster head coach decision a chance to set the tone for next stage of evolution

So which way next for Munster Rugby, now that the enduring soap opera in which it takes centre stage has delivered yet another plot twist?

For those at Coventry Building Society Arena last Sunday, there will have been a warm glow of satisfaction and pride that their province’s future was bright as the team, stewarded in the capable hands of academy manager Ian Costello and his assistants Greig Oliver and Andi Kyriacou, overcame the odds to beat Wasps with a bonus point.

OK, senior coach Stephen Larkham had, in the preceding weeks, announced his decision to return to Australia and take the top job at his hometown Brumbies, but the fearless ball-in-hand performance of a side blended with international class and untested raw talent suggested his imprint on Munster’s attacking play would stick around long after the legendary Wallaby’s departure.

And if the men in red could summon a European away win of this calibre with more than 30 senior players absent, one wondered what it could take to unhinge the passion, determination, and guts that went into this victory in the English West Midlands.

Yet events this week have added another layer of drama to proceedings ahead of the visit of old foes Castres to Thomond Park for round two of the Heineken Champions Cup pool stage, and now give an early opportunity to put that question to the test. For having overcome one Covid-shaped obstacle in Coventry, Munster must now take to their home field in the knowledge that their head coach will be leaving next summer too.

Johann van Graan dropped his bombshell on Tuesday, confirming he had rejected the offer of a contract extension for next season, and was instead seeking pastures new next June after what will have been five seasons at the helm.

Few will begrudge the man exercising his right to reach such a decision in the interests, as he explained, of what is best for his family. We all face such questions at some stage in our adult lives, and would expect to be given the same courtesy. Yet there are knock-on effects to van Graan’s choice, which, the following day, confirmed the expectation that he was swapping Munster for England’s struggling giants Bath.

Earlier this season there had been the promise of extended and much-needed coaching stability in a province that has enjoyed precious little of the commodity since Tony McGahan went home to Australia in 2012. Then it looked like a settled senior coaching quartet would commit en masse for a longer stay, but with van Graan and Larkham going, there is potential for further defections if defence coach JP Ferreira and forwards coach Graham Rowntree also get cold feet and decline their contract extension offers.

As it stands, Munster are now on the hunt for a fifth head coach since McGahan, with van Graan having succeeded Rassie Erasmus, the late Anthony Foley, and Rob Penney. While Larkham will be the latest in a line of assistants that has also included Felix Jones, Brian Walsh, Simon Mannix and Jason Holland, Laurie Fisher, Jerry Flannery, Costello, and Jacques Nienaber. All have been and gone in that period from a variety of roles, though that is a reflection of the wider professional club game rather than a comment on Munster’s ability to retain coaching staff.

Rather it is because of the calibre of candidate that has been attracted to it, that those coaches so often move onto better offers and higher stations. Why else would a coaching talent of the quality of the Crusaders’ Scott Robertson enter the conversation, as it has in the media this week?

After all, the Munster coaching alumni from the last decade includes three members of South Africa’s 2019 World Cup-winning staff (Erasmus, Nienaber, Jones), an English Premiership-winning forwards coach (Flannery), and the Hurricanes Super Rugby head coach (Holland).

And if that is not an incentive for a coach to hitch one’s colours to the Munster mast next summer, then they should have listened to a senior player this week outline several more reasons for signing on.

“You look at our fanbase, you look at the facilities we have here; the young players coming through; the mix of senior, good pros here; S&C staff; physios,” Dave Kilcoyne said on Wednesday, “there’s not many organisations in the world that are as good as what we have here or how blessed we are.”

That fanbase would dearly love to see two of its favourite sons, Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell, back at their home province, but the former, by way of his Irish Examiner column yesterday, laid out plenty of reasons not to turn his back on his new role as the main man at La Rochelle, not least the fear of being considered “a Judas” if he ditched the French club just five months after his promotion.

O’Connell also appears to be on a different track as Ireland’s forwards coach and part of a coaching ticket that has gone seven Tests unbeaten, including last month’s victory over New Zealand.

Yet there are others with strong links to the province who are worthy of consideration in the coming weeks as the search for both van Graan and Larkham’s successors ramps up at both Munster and the IRFU.

Perhaps Régis Sonnes, as suggested this week by a friend, may be tempted back following his sabbatical at Bandon Grammar School, when he worked with future Munster recruit Jack Crowley.

The former Bordeaux and Toulouse assistant is currently coaching in Spain after a short-lived spell at Pro D2 side Agen, although current Racing 92 attack coach Mike Prendergast must be closer to the top of the wishlist for a return home.

O’Gara mentioned both Prendergast and Holland in his column, while there is surely unfinished business for Flannery to conclude, having departed alongside Jones in the summer of 2019.

Just as that homegrown pair’s exits three summers ago gave an opportunity to reach for excellence and proven experience in the form of Larkham and Rowntree, chief executive Ian Flanagan now has a similar chance to set the tone for the next stage of Munster’s evolution. 

For all van Graan’s impressive qualities, the Reds are now more than a decade without silverware.

The drought may end before he departs, but either way, the squad he leaves behind needs a successor to take them to the next level.