If you want to talk about experience lost, this past offseason was as big a shift in the age level and experience of the senior playing group that we’ve seen at Munster since the ageing out of the great side of the early-mid 2000s between 2011 and 2013.
To put it into perspective, the average age of the senior squad went from 27 ahead of 2020/21 to 26 in 2021/22 and that’s with Munster adding three extra senior players to the squad year on year. When Munster chose to move on from Tommy O’Donnell, Rhys Marshall, James Cronin, JJ Hanrahan, Darren Sweetnam and Billy Holland – all regular category one features except for O’Donnell at this stage of his career – with CJ Stander springing a surprise with his own relatively early retirement, 1047 caps worth of experience walked out the door.
Except for Stander – who I didn’t expect to be replaced for another two seasons barring a catastrophic injury – all of these decisions to cut, where such a decision was made, were understandable if a little upsetting to see en-masse. There’s no doubting that the financial constraints imposed by the pandemic played a part in some of the decisions but I had all of these players listed as either SQUAD 2 talents or on a PRIORITY replacement countdown inside three years. As I mentioned earlier, Stander was the deepest cut of the lot but you could make an argument that for a player in his role, with his abrasive style of play, we would have been looking for a replacement sooner rather than later. When that replacement, in the form of one Gavin Coombes, made himself known to the rugby world last season, the loss of Stander was cushioned to the point that it felt like a natural progression from totem to totem – a relative rarity in Irish rugby.
With that in mind, I’ve seen quite a bit written and said about some of the decisions relative to the signing of Jason Jenkins in this environment. Why, people asked, was Jason Jenkins signed when Munster born and bred players like Cronin/Hanrahan/Sweetnam are let go?
If we forget about “optics”, the reality is that all three of those players were either on a Priority Replacement countdown with a Potential Foundation player down the depth chart – James Cronin with Josh Wycherley behind him – or they were senior players firmly in the SQUAD 2 category. That is to say, they were good guys to have in the squad in an ideal scenario but relatively expensive in a straightened financial environment where the union is looking for savings on playing contracts year on year.
If you want to compare Jason Jenkins to Cronin, Hanrahan and Sweetnam – which is difficult to do given that they play in different positions – then the only way to make the comparison is that Munster replaced three SQUAD-2 level players with a CORE 1 level talent that can immediately impact in Category 1 games in a key area of the modern game. Namely, a 6’8″, 125KG power forward in a three lock pack build.
If Munster are built to win now, this season – and I think they are – then prioritising a guy like Jenkins from a budgetary perspective makes sense.
In this series, I’ll go through all these permutations in every depth chart for Munster starting with the front row.
Let’s look at my assessment of the Munster’s front row as it stands ahead of 2021/22.
As with Derailing the Big East last year, the squad classifications are as follows;
Priority 1: Important player to be replaced within one season
Priority 2: Important player to be replaced within two seasons
Priority 3: Important player to be replaced within three seasons
Core 1: Important first-choice player that likely has at least four seasons of peak performance remaining.
Squad 2: Squad player in peak age that likely has four+ seasons of high performance in a down-the-chart position.
Foundation Player: Young talent (20-24) expected to play for five + seasons and transition to Core 1.
Potential Foundation: Talent ID’d young player (18-23) that has the potential to ascend to regular first-team exposure as a Core 1 or Squad 2 type player.
Assess 1: A player who will need to be assessed for role suitability and depth chart position.
| Player | Position | Age in Jan 1 2022 | Grade | Contract Year in 2022? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Kilcoyne | LHP | 33 | CORE 1/PRIORITY 2 | NO |
| Josh Wycherley | LHP | 22 | POTENTIAL FOUNDATION | NO |
| Jeremy Loughman | LHP | 26 | SQUAD 2 | YES |
| Liam O'Connor | LHP | 26 | SQUAD 2 | YES |
| James French | LHP | 23 | POTENTIAL FOUNDATION | YES |
| Niall Scannell | HK | 29 | SQUAD 2 | NO |
| Kevin O'Byrne | HK | 30 | SQUAD 2 | YES |
| Diarmuid Barron | HK | 23 | ASSESS 1 | YES |
| Stephen Archer | THP | 33 | PRIORITY 1 | YES |
| John Ryan | THP | 33 | PRIORITY 1 | YES |
| Keynan Knox | THP | 22 | FOUNDATION 1 | YES |
| Roman Salanoa | THP | 24 | POTENTIAL FOUNDATION 1 | YES |
There are a few areas that stand out on this chart at first glance.
The first is the potential flux on the way in the front row.
On the tighthead side, the equation is pretty simple. All four senior tightheads are off contract at the end of next season and Munster will be expecting the young pair of Keynan Knox and Roman Salanoa to ascend to CORE 1 status over the next 12 months. They will need a bit of luck with injury – Salanoa in particular – but I’ve seen enough from both players to suggest they have the capacity to ascend to the level required of a modern-day tighthead duo over the next season with support from the veteran pair of Stephen Archer and John Ryan.
If all goes to plan, I would suggest there is room for a one or two-year veteran deal for either John Ryan or Stephen Archer – I’d pick Ryan right now, personally, as I think he’s the better scrummager – to cover the position post-2022 with Munster looking to recruit a tighthead (or two) into the academy in the position over the next two seasons.
On the loosehead side, the decision not to renew James Cronin’s deal last season left Munster in a situation where Josh Wycherley kinda has to work out as a Potential Foundation talent. Despite his excellent performance during the early stages of 2020/21, I’d still rate Josh Wycherley as a Potential Foundation player because much of his profile as a senior player is yet to be determined. If he works out as I expect him to, Wycherley will be CORE 1 for Munster and on track for Ireland by the end of this season but he’s got to show it by getting on the field and impressing consistently.
Without James Cronin, there is no wiggle room on Wycherley’s development but that seems like a measured risk on Munster’s behalf. They, in concert with the IRFU, would have likely assessed Cronin’s contract demands/value relative to what they expected from Wycherley this season and came to the conclusion that an offer to Cronin relative to his worth wasn’t in line with the budget. That sets the stage for Josh Wycherley quite nicely but that comes with pressure, too.
Dave Kilcoyne is an established senior player at this stage and is finally in a spot where he’s comfortably CORE 1 for both Munster and Ireland. That said, he will be 33 in Jan 2022 and has two years left on his current deal so he is also a Priority Replacement.
Kilcoyne and Wycherley, if fit, should be the Category 1 duo in the position, in my opinion, with Loughman and O’Connor providing cover throughout the season. I would suggest there’s only a contract for one of them at the end of next season but even that isn’t certain with James French in the background.
It says a lot about what Munster think James French could be when you consider he got a senior deal – one year albeit – despite only playing 77 minutes of “A” rugby for the province during his three years in the academy. That alone is telling in the financial environment Munster found themselves during last season. French’s time with the academy was derailed by a succession of injuries but, despite playing next to no rugby, Munster gave him a senior contract in a position where they already had four full professionals. Why? Look at his fundamentals in the position – a former back row, a power ball carrier, 6’1″ and 120KG at 23 years of age. There’s a serious prospect here IF he can stay fit and hold up in the scrum, both of which are question marks for me at the moment because I just haven’t seen enough of him. He’s definitely a guy to keep an eye on. Is he a loosehead or a tighthead? We’ll have to wait and see.
At hooker, there is a certainty, of a kind, but a clear need for development.
In a role that suits his strengths, Niall Scannell is an international level player. Forget about form – this is about usage. When Niall Scannell is carrying 7/8 times a game, he is immediately off-role, for me and looks all the worse for it. It’s a role he has had to take for this Munster side in the last two years at different times and, in my opinion, it just doesn’t suit him. It got to the point where I genuinely felt that Scannell was 50/50 to be retained with a new contract ahead of this season. When he signed a two year deal, I wasn’t surprised but I felt it was a close enough decision between himself and Rhys Marshall.
Niall Scannell is at his best when he is a heavy support hooker with a big focus on tight defence, offensive ruck work and nailing the set piece as a top class scrummaging hooker and a knockdown thrower at the lineout.
When Scannell hits this role, he immediately jumps into Irish contention, for me and would be a CORE 1 player for Munster. If the signing of Jenkins, the re-emergence of Snyman and the potential ascension of Knox, Salanoa, Wycherley and French to that tight ball carrying rotation works out, Scannell could fit into that support role that I think best suits him. There’s a reason why Bongi Mbonami – a player who tracks well with Scannell, in my opinion – rarely carries more than five times in a game for the Springboks and it’s for the same reason why Scannell shouldn’t either. That isn’t his game. Until that changes, Scannell is a SQUAD 2 tier player for me in a depth chart with no clear dominant role player.
Kevin O’Byrne is coming into a contract season off possibly his best season at the club. How many highlights can you remember from OB last season? Too many to mention. There were offloads, superb passes, dynamic moments ball in hand, tries and some decent work off the set piece. Ultimately, what has prevented O’Byrne’s ascension to the test side even with these highlights is down to size, in my opinion. O’Byrne is the same weight as Damian De Allende and 5KG lighter than Chris Farrell. That shouldn’t matter but, for a modern hooker, it does – especially at test level. I see O’Byrne signing a new deal this year because I think he’s a great system hooker that can be paired as a match day duo successfully in an environment where other players are filling power ball carrying roles.
For Diarmuid Barron, the other senior hooker and the youngest of the three, I really do feel that this is a make or break year. He needs size, as a priority, and a role that suits him. When I’ve seen Barron play well, he’s been a knockdown thrower, a good technical scrummager, a good offensive breakdown player and a tight handler of the ball. When he’s looked poor – on a few occasions towards the end of the season – his throwing has been off, his handling fell apart and he was losing collisions.
He’s currently listed at 98KG which would make him the lightest senior hooker playing in the country at the moment which isn’t a killer for him professionally, but if he’s going to hang around that weight he needs to pair it with elite role usage. This season will be a big year for him in nailing down that role. I could see him in a ball playing hooker role with a big focus on the set piece and at the defensive breakdown but we’ll have to see.
It’s no surprise to see Munster being linked in some quarters with the still Irish Qualified George McGuigan, a 28 year old with power hooker tendencies but that business will be linked with the performance of all three hookers this season. If Scannell gets back to his best, McGuigan might not make sense but if that role fluidity persists, McGuigan could be a good two year option while Munster look for other CORE 1 players or Foundation level talents.
In the Academy
Below senior level, Munster have two front row forwards in the academy at present – Mark Donnelly and Scott Buckley.
| Player | Year | Position | Age in Jan 1 2021 | Height | Current Weight | Projected Role Set |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Donnelly | 1 | LHP | 20 | 5'11" | 110KG | Tech Scrummager |
| Scott Buckley | 2 | HK | 21 | 5'11" | 104KG | Power Hooker |
Donnelly, nominally a loosehead prop, got all of his u20 minutes as a tighthead prop for the Irish U20s in the recent Six Nations but I’d be hard pressed to say that he impressed there. In a way, what else was there to expect? He was undersized for a tighthead at an age grade where those extra KG can count for a whole lot. Donnelly was a loosehead on all my charts as he progressed through the age grades so seeing him wearing 3/18 was a bit of a surprise to me. He could cover both sides, technically, but it didn’t seem to work for him during the Six Nations.
You know what though? It shows a lot about his character that he took those hard lines for the team, showed up and took his lumps during a tough campaign for him personally. I think Donnelly is much better than he showed in that tournament and the next year of pro-training and exposure to Rowntree will make a massive difference in him. He’s one to watch as an aggressive, destructive scrummaging loosehead, I genuinely believe that.
Scott Buckley is one of my tips for a breakout season in the second year of the academy. Buckley has all the qualities needed to be the power hooker that Munster have been looking for, if he gets a bit of luck with injury. I saw him playing in the backrow for Munster A last season and was really impressed with his acceleration and pop into contact after only one year of pro-conditioning and even then, coming off a year ruined by a hamstring injury.
Buckley has the role set qualities and physical qualities needed to make an impact sooner rather than later for Munster and, injury allowing, could well see URC minutes this season – possibly more than he or anyone thinks.
