Pro12 a friend to Munster in time of transition

ON RUGBY:AS WITH the Celtic League and the Magners League, the Pro12 receives something of a bum rap. Yet, as was highlighted by the celebrations at Thomond Park last May for the Magners League, one of only two trophies on offer, it is a competition well worth winning in its own right.

And as the results in the Heineken Cup underline, for all the hype, money and big-name signings in England and France, the Pro12’s teams can more than hold their own against those from the Premiership and the Top 14.

Granted, the provinces and their rivals tend to utilise their squads and rotate their front-liners, with one eye on the Heineken Cup. Perception is everything, and hence when the likes of Leinster and Munster make up to 13 changes in the fall-out from successive European games, that may appear to detract from the league. But it also highlights the league’s value, particularly in blooding young talent from the provincial academy systems.

Of course, Munster won the league last season, and yet because they went out in the pool stages of the Heineken Cup for the first time in 13 seasons it was perceived as an ignominious failure, for which Tony McGahan copped plenty of flak. So McGahan knows better than anyone that a repeat would constitute another failed campaign.

It’s worth bearing in mind that McGahan is overseeing probably the most difficult phase Munster have had to undergo in about 13 years, for they are going through a transition and at the same time their legion of supporters – not to mention the likes of Paul O’Connell, Ronan O’Gara and the rest of the older guard – demand that they remain competitive, particularly in Europe. Although a core of the older guard remain part of the squad and made a huge impact in the two European games, the starting team which played Northampton this season is almost unrecognisable from that of two years ago. Remarkably, of this year’s team, only O’Connell and O’Gara boasted more than a half-century of European caps.

They have ultimately depended on last-ditch drop goals by you-know-who in overtime for what effectively amounts to five of their eight match points, leaving them strongly in contention a point behind the Scarlets. They are third in the league as well, underlining how well McGahan is managing the transition so far.

His response to last season was to rejig his playing squad and coaching ticket, and tellingly so.

The transition from long-serving player to coach can be a difficult one, especially when coaching many long-time team-mates, but one of the players was raving about Anthony Foley’s coaching even before he added to his defensive duties.

On foot of replacing the departed Laurie Fisher as forwards coach, seemingly at a stroke, the Munster maul has been revitalised (though Niall O’Donovan, for one, always maintained that it required the longest time on the training ground). With the addition of BJ Botha, the scrum has also been transformed from a weakness into a weapon.

True, Botha had his difficulties with Soane Tonga’uiha again, but he wouldn’t be unique there and he has the experience to come to terms with the Tongan when they meet again in January. After all, the Scarlets did so when, by hook or by crook, surviving in the scrums for their bonus-point win at Franklin’s Gardens as Dylan Hartley’s propensity to pop and virtually scrummage with his chest was exposed once more.

The prevalence of overseas props at the provinces is disturbing, but if McGahan were to rectify the hugely costly scrum problems of last season – consider the defeat away to the Ospreys – then he was entirely justified in offering Tony Buckley only a one-year extension while lining up a Springbok.

The acquisition of Ian Keatley has supplemented the conveyor belt of talent – notably young backs such as the free-running and hard-running Simon Zebo, the increasingly impressive Danny Barnes and Luke O’Dea, of the unfairly maligned Munster academy. It has also offset the signing of an expensive overseas player.

One wonders how Connacht have viewed the progress of Seán Cronin with Leinster in the Heineken Cup, and the contributions of Keatley, the try-scoring Fionn Carr and Jamie Hagan to the weekend victories of Munster and Leinster, as they slipped to their seventh successive defeat. If the strong are to continue plucking selectively from Connacht, then there has to be more traffic going the other way too.

Keatley may have more or less sacrificed a Heineken Cup campaign with his move, but at 24 it’s an understandable decision. There will surely be a sharp rise in his learning curve from playing behind O’Gara and a pack that is more likely to be going forward.

Keatley has a solid kicking game and a quick running game, as well as the inventiveness that was shown in creating two of Munster’s four tries at the weekend. One ventures too that the Irish management are happy with Keatley’s move to Munster, even if it means he’s missing out on the Heineken Cup and, generally, is not accumulating as much game time.

No other out-half executes perfectly weighted grubbers into the in-goal area for his wingers or full-backs to pounce for tries in the way that Dan Carter does. But Keatley’s grubber for O’Dea’s try could have come straight out of the master’s play book.

Another feature of the last few weeks is how a host of young tyros are being exposed at Heineken Cup and Pro12 level, with the glut of young players having some game time in midfield. Danny Barnes is looking more and more an inside centre in the making but the more pressing concern is to see who’s putting their hands up at 13 – and here Eoin O’Malley is leading the way.

O’Malley’s footwork has always caught the eye in his sporadic appearances, and as he showed with his try against Treviso – albeit against vintage marshmallow defending – he takes good lines. As everywhere else, modern Test midfields are populated by huge men. Even though his rolled-down socks accentuate his slightly spindly appearance, O’Malley has looked the part, not least in his defensive work.

He remains a long shot for the Six Nations, but his evident progress this season is interesting, and will continue to be if he retains the number 13 jersey in Brian O’Driscoll’s absence.