Unless he is coming on a 6 month sabbatical then his Munster move is off

Back to drawing board for Munster after testing season

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2026/0601/1576249-back-to-drawing-board-for-munster-after-testing-season/

I enjoyed reading this perspective from Jonny Holland

Former Munster fly-half and current Cork Con head coach.

To say he knows what he is talking about would be an understatement ;-)

This was an odd season. While there were some high highs there were also more low lows. At the end of it, we finished 2nd out of the provinces (the difference between us and Leinster being that game in Thomond with that refereeing performance) and crashed out of Europe. Ignoring the off-field stuff, it comes down to a question of trajector. Connacht finished below as but finished strong, whereas we started strong and didn’t finish well. But let’s break it down into key areas to get a better understanding:

Defence

We conceded 376 points, the 5th lowest in the league. This is despite our problems with getting overpowered across the pitch and are problems elsewhere feeding into losing points. We also had the highest number of turnovers in the league, 136. A tackle success rate of 80% is also solid.

I think Leamy should get a lot of credit for building an effective defence under those circumstance, with the athletes available to him. Without our defence being as solid as it was this season would have got a lot worse.

Attack

Our attack struggled. We were 9th in the league with 396 points scored. We were 11th for defenders beaten, with 376. We were 13th for clean breaks with 119. We were 6th for offloads with 129, behind Zebre and ahead of Glasgow. Finally, we were 11th for metres gained with 6,510.

Ultimately, this paints a picture of an attack struggling to produce anything and aligns with our attack simply seeking to go ‘side to side. I think Prendergast is a good coach, but his attacking system has become outdated. I understand why he wouldn’t want to change the system the won the URC, and was fantastic then. But the rule change has made all the fancy tricks we do, far less successful than simply kicking contestables.

What are attack situation for next season looks like is unclear, but if we use a slightly deeper system, like we did against Benneton and the Lions and figure out how to make contestables work for us, then Prendergast leaving may turn out to be a good thing

Set Piece

Our scrums won percent of 89% isn’t great, but it’s not awful either. But if we look under the hood, we’ve suffered 60 scrum penalties, only behind Dragons. Not to mention Europe. This is currently an albatross around the team’s next, fixing this will make or break next season.

For lineouts, we ended up 6th in the league with 88%. 8th for lineout steals. Not awful, given we were apparently building from scratch in pre-season. I think the larger problem with lineouts is our failure to use it as a platform. Our maul both defensively and offensively hasn’t really fired. Same with our strike plays. So it seems like the lineout is far less effective than it is.

Codling was brought in to fix the line out. He’s done that. But he can’t seem to bring the same focus into other areas. Again, bringing in somebody, who can improve us in the other areas, providing they can keep the lineout steady. Should hopefully make a huge difference. If it is Duffy, hopefully he can be that.

Youth-Usage

Given this was meant to be a (re)building season, ideally we should have brought our young players forward. So I’m going to give our young players their own section.

In total, we gave players 24 and under, 4,656 minutes. To give an idea of scale, Ulster, probably the most comparable province to us at the moment, have their players 24 and under, 8,737 minutes. Obviously, they didn’t get Champions cup but twice the youth minutes is a big difference which you would think would pay dividends in future seasons.

I do think there are positives, Gleeson and E Edogbo are now easy includes in our strongest 23. Tom Wood got his debut (I think that’s enough for an u-20 player, but I would have given him the Ulster game, once Crowley pulled up). Despite relatively few minute, O’Donovan looks a consumate professional.

But generally, the story is one of frustration. I think S Edogbo, O’Connell and O’Connor showed they can offer far more. We barely saw Foxe and Clein. Before we mentioned the unusef academy talent like, Foy. We’re going to have to trust them at some point…

Final Overview

When McMillan came in, he spoke about raising the floor and instead it fell out. What our identity is, or what we’re progressing towards is unclear. Despite this, we slogged our way to 5th. The problems lie in our attack and setpiece. If new coaches can make a big difference here we should improve rapidly. But make no mistake, we have to see improvement next year or we won’t get 5th. New signings will hopefully improve us, but by and large, we need to start finding answers within the squad.

Unbelievable performance by him off the bench. Great match in general too!

Ahhh, hello Shaun, fancy a bit of living in Killaloe..

Maybe coach a few lads in red?

Im sick of all the negative talk about Munster

I am looking forward to next year

We have a big lump of a hooker in Marnus

Evan, Eogbo Conor Ryan, in the 2nd row.

Sean Edogbo, Ruaidhain Quinn, Gleeson, Foy

Ben o Donovan to keep progressing.

Tom Wood

It looks shit now but we have some really good talent coming through

SUAF

Watching about 90% of Munster matches live this year and the rest as highlights, what is needed for Munster to get consistent ?

- player recruitment?
- coach recruitment?

There is a rebuild that looks like on paper it was meant to start this season but it’s backwards we’re going.

John Ryan and MAA out. Aungier in. Jager and Salanoa serious doubts.

If we assume the worst with Jager and Salanoa, which I think is a realistic outcome at this point, our next year’s senior lineup looks like: Aungier, Bartley, Foxe

Bartley has played a total 97 minutes in his Munster career. Foxe has played 78 minutes in his. Meanwhile MAA has started all but one or two games since he’s got here with absolutely nothing to show for it except a huge penalty and handling error count. Feels like zero consideration has went into what the fuck we do until this post World Cup signing comes in.

That would be Crescent Comprehensive School

Driving on Saturday and want to listen to it. Can pipe premier sport through the Bluetooth if needed

The best thing by far that McMillan has done since arriving has been getting this fella over here. I can’t imagine he’s flown across the world on the traditional 8k academy contract so McMillan must have vouched heavily for him. In fact, after some of the let’s say “head scratching” team selections this season and our reversion to a much tighter attack with an undersized pack, the fact that McMillan had any eye for Benny Boy is one of the only reasons I’m retaining faith in him.

Idk who this fella was or how he was on Canterbury B, but this fella is just complete - real, real complete 😏. Watching him train is a joy. He is just so composed, quick, assertive and efficient at the base, he has the feel of an effortless and natural decision maker, a wand of a boot which travels long and drops slowly, a very clever link player and a quality pass.

Would not surprise me at all if he was Andy Farrell’s number 2 at RWC27. Above all else Andy Farrell clearly wants a scrum half who can both exit strongly and facilitate Ireland’s high octane phase play. We all know by this stage that Casey isnt trusted by Farrell because of his decision making and kicking inconsistencies. At this stage, im just not sure if Casey will ever turn that corner. Doak is probably stronger in the aforementioned areas but he is still too slow to suit Farrell’s game plan. Divine is electric but quite erratic and his passing needs a lot more work.

O Donovan ticks all these boxes.