Rassie Erasmus relishing challenge of shaping new era at Thomond Park

Despite holding their nerve with back-to-back bonus-point wins to secure a top-six finish and their customary place in this season's European Champions Cup, there's plenty of doom and gloom around Munster as they face into another new season. Rassie Erasmus has a job on his hands, and he knows it.

However, aside from being a highly regarded coach, if anyone can lift spirits it is assuredly the ebullient South African, even if Munster do not look particularly equipped to hit the ground running away to the Scarlets on Saturday week.

To begin with, he sees standards set in the past as a positive rather than baggage. “If you look at Munster teams through the past that were successful, we can’t clone those 15 or 23 guys. You can’t take a 21-year- old guy and say you must have a 30-year-old way of thinking.”

Noting “the overall Munster ethos of great team harmony”, he added: “The guys really give attention to detail. Those were great things that came from the past.

“While understanding that, and I’m sorry for quoting this, but I think it was Einstein that said, ‘if you do the same thing over and over and you expect a different result, that’s insanity’.

Personalities

“I think we are taking those great things from the past and saying that the game has also moved on. We can’t win the same as 2006 or 2008 because it’s different people, different personalities.

“But it’s about not losing those things that made them great. It’s a new era. The game has changed from last year, since I played, since the great Munster teams played. Every year it evolves and we want to be the cutting-edge when it comes to that.”

Reaching into Munster’s famed X-factor would require them to get the physical side of the game right.

As Erasmus says: "To manage the breakdown, the mechanical part of the game – the scrums, the lineouts, the physical and non-skill side of things. I think that must be a certain standard before you can get the Simon Zebo skills. I feel the players are understanding that and are working hard at that but we're not there yet.

“We’ve played one warm-up game and it was average. But I think there are other great things that we have. We’ve got speed. We’re good in the air. We’ve got a good kicking game. We’ve got a few guys who can create something out of nothing. Conor [Murray] is one of the best nines in the world. We’ve got massive big locks in the mix. We’ve got Peter O’Mahony and there are young guys who are pushing.”

However, in addition to the deflating loss of Francis Saili for four months due to a shoulder injury, Erasmus confirmed that outhalf Johnny Holland would be sidelined indefinitely.

“Johnny saw a specialist last week, and he’s definitely not going to be playing in the next month or so. We’re going to think about what the best option is and make a decision next week. It’s a medical issue at this stage which would be bad for me to comment on. There are solutions; some are long-term some short, but this is what we need to think about.”

Nor have Munster been wowing their fans with summer signings, with Erasmus' only acquisition being lock Jean Kleyn from the Stormers and Western Province. "Jean was a guy that I worked with so much and I think is world class.

“In other positions, I think I would be stupid to get somebody for the sake of getting somebody. They must be really better.”

Ideal circumstances

He was asked why he would take on such a job. “When I took the Cheetahs, they hadn’t won a cup for 29 years and we won three Currie Cups. When I took over the Stormers, they were 11th in the table and and we got to first or second, three or four years in a row.

“But that’s what it’s about. They say: ‘Nothing great has ever been achieved in ideal circumstances.’ Why would you go to a place where it’s just easy; you have all the money, and the best things? Is that something great?

“We’re going upstream with a load of things going against us but when we get that right, there is so much more satisfaction. People will definitely write us off at the beginning which we accept because we haven’t had a great few years but that’s the challenge and that’s what I enjoy.”