In the last instalment of this series, I looked at areas where Munster might look to shed some of the oversized contracts that we currently have on the books in line with a general trend of bringing expenditure down as a form of identifying where we’re weak at the moment. I still expect that Munster will shed some top-end contracts this season – specifically that intersection between long-time senior players and players who find themselves level or behind younger players in the depth chart – but there is room and, indeed, a need to add established quality to the team from outside.
One area that will be of particular focus is Hooker. You could make an argument that, in 2022, having a complete hooker rotation is the most important indicator of a winning team. So, in essence, that means having two top-class hooker role sets to split a game for you with role “twins” for them down the depth chart to manage the injuries that almost always occur in this attritional position without too much framework disruption.
The importance of the lineout and the hooker’s importance to the lineout and the maul as the key threat at the tail or on the loop feint means that the position has become incredibly valuable. If you’ve got the physicality and explosivity to compress defences off the back of a maul or on a swivel play on a maul feint, you’re incredibly valuable in the game as it stands in 2022.
Given the load on most props as lifters and core scrummagers, it’s becoming rarer and rarer to see a starting prop throw up large carrying numbers, just because of the physical load on them at the set piece but the modern power hooker has the calorific space to do just that. Australia, weirdly enough, tend to use their props as core carriers and I have to believe that their incredibly poor return at the lineout is not unconnected from that usage on-ball.
Whatever happens with signings inward, I think the development of Diarmuid Barron has to be paramount given the improvements he’s shown this calendar year but this is a two-man position. The two-man position you might say. When you’ve got the right blend of hookers at the right level, you can really alter areas of your framework for different parts of the game. Have a really good Heavy Support Hooker? You can start with that player and then blend your “finish” to the game with a Power Hooker to take advantage of a weaker opposition rotation or combine them with other impact players in the back five off the bench to supercharge your on-ball physicality for the last 20/25 minutes of the contest. Or you can reverse that depending on your pack build or your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.
At the moment, Munster doesn’t have a senior hooker that would fit into the Power Hooker classification. Chris Moore and Scott Buckley have potential in that regard – certainly when you look at their physical characteristics – but they are still relatively inexperienced at the elite level and both are building on their game in the AIL at the moment for Young Munster and UCC respectively.
Our two senior hookers are Niall Scannell and Diarmuid Barron. Niall Scannell is almost the archetypical Heavy Support Hooker with good scrummaging, and generally good lineout basics but his physical output on-ball, in the tackle and even at the breakdown can fluctuate quite a bit. If Niall Scannell had broken through in 2006, I think he’d have 50+ international caps because the typical hooker role that was prominent during that stretch of the game between 2007 and 2014 was pretty much exactly suited to his strengths.
As it stands, he’s in a contract year and, arguably, sixth in the depth chart nationally behind Sheehan, Kelleher, Herring, Heffernan and Diarmuid Barron. For Munster, there’s a difficult contract decision to be made here. If Barron has advanced ahead of Scannell in the national pecking order in the first year of his new contract, what value is there in signing Niall Scannell onto a contract on similar terms to his current deal? I’ve been over what I feel are the maths are on this before but I think the emergence of Diarmuid Barron as a top-level option this season has made the decision to prune this depth chart a little more straightforward.
To be clear, I feel that pruning is releasing Niall Scannell, bringing a hooker into the academy in the next intake, and re-signing Moore on another one-year deal. My focus would be enhancing Diarmuid Barron by pairing him with an established, top-class talent in 2023/24 and beyond with that same top-class talent working closely with the other three young hookers in turn.
I’m going hunting for a power hooker and I’m cutting what I need to cut in less demanding areas to make it happen.
We haven’t seen RG Snyman finish a game for Munster in the last two and a bit seasons to this point but the influence he’s had on Edwin Edogbo and Thomas Ahern has been a nice example of how a World Class talent can passively improve young talent, even when they aren’t playing. That isn’t just copium either – RG’s injuries have been a disaster for both him personally and the club – but it’s a good example of how a player like that can improve the players around them. It’s visible in this instance because RG’s injury-enforced absence has been so pronounced.
As far as I can see, there are three main targets that are worth chasing in this “bracket” of signing.
Target #1 – Malcolm Marx
Current Club: Kubota Spears, Japan.
Out of contract in 2023? : Yes
Physical Dimensions: 6’2″/115KG
Pros: Best Power Hooker in the game, reliable thrower, World Cup winner with a tonne of experience while still being in physical at 29 at the time he’d take up any potential contract.
Cons: Expensive, hasn’t played regular high-level club rugby since 2019 so there’s an element of risk there, still an active international so we’d lose him at the start of the season for the Rugby Championship.
Malcolm Marx would be the dream signing for this position. He’s the best Power Hooker in the game in my opinion and he’s perfectly suited to whatever phase of the game you want to use him in. Getting him would be a coup along the lines of Snyman and, actually, Snyman’s potential presence at the club in 2023/24 could be a factor in getting Marx to sign.
Regardless of that, Marx will cost serious money to sign – in and around €650k per annum plus extras like a house, car and other perks – and that could well climb a little higher depending on the competition for his signature, which is likely to include French clubs, South African clubs and even other Japanese club sides.
Signing Marx means you immediately beef up Munster’s front-five rotation regardless of whether he’s wearing #2 or #16 but he will not come cheap and could well eat up into funds for other areas of the squad depending on how the bidding process goes.
How badly do we want him? We’ll see.
Target #2 – Brandon Paenga-Amosa
Current Club: Montpellier, France.
Out of contract in 2023?: Yes
Physical Dimensions: 6’0″/117KG
Pros: A lot of the same physical qualities as Marx, excellent defensive breakdown player, very direct and impactful carrier off #9, a far better system fit on the face of it compared to Marx, likely €200/€300k cheaper per annum than Marx if he can be convinced to leave Montpellier, is available in July 2023 without any World Cup commitments as of now.
Cons: Not as experienced or as decorated a player as Marx so the passive benefits to younger players could be less pronounced.
Brandon Paenga-Amosa is probably the best “system-fit” hooker out there for Munster right now. He’s a decent lineout thrower and a decent scrummager but his best qualities are found in launching off the back of a moving maul and loading up on carries, tackles and breakdown involvements on both sides of the ball. He’s an aggressive, spiky character onfield too and he’d be the perfect foil for any of the other hookers at the club. The only downside to Paenga-Amosa is his lineout throwing, which can fluctuate up and down but his baseline is more than enough to unleash his impact on the next phase.
Target #3 – Rónan Kelleher
Current Club: Leinster, Ireland.
Out of contract in 2023?: Quite possibly.
Physical Dimensions: 6’0″/105KG
Pros: Irish qualified and a current high-tier Irish international, possible central contract tier player with a bit of luck with injury, father from Cork to establish a baseline connection to Munster, key Power Hooker profile.
Cons: Signing Leinster players who move for a green jersey rarely take to a red jersey with the same relish, an increasingly bad injury profile.
Last season, I suggest Dan Sheehan as a possible option for Munster around the same point that Johann Van Graan was making a pitch to Sheehan about the very same move. Sheehan turned the move down and, over the next nine months, firmly established himself as a test-level option and took every single opportunity that Rónan Kelleher’s injury-ravaged season provided him.
It was truly remarkable. When Munster were talking to Sheehan last year, he was firmly #2 to Kelleher (who had signed a significant deal the season before off the back of an outstanding breakout campaign) but Leinster stepped in with another significant offer to keep Sheehan and man, did that ever work out.
But there was an element of kicking a problem down the road with that too. Essentially, how long can you afford to carry two elite-level, non-centrally contracted internationals in the same two-man position? This is not something Leinster have ever had to deal with, really, not with two players at this level. Leavy and Van Der Flier could be played in the same starting back row when both men were fit at the same time – a small enough window, actually – but there was a status differential between the two that would have made it a negligible contract decision. Now, if you were provincially contracting 2022 Josh Van Der Flier and 2018 Dan Leavy, you might have a real issue when it comes to literally fitting those players into a functional back five. Even with that, you could do it because you can run with four – or five, with a 6/2 split – back row forwards in a match day squad.
At hooker, it’s a two-man position and a four+one squad chart. If you’re spending Tier 1 money on two hookers – especially in straightened times when squads are getting smaller and provincial contract spending is managed tighter at a union level – you’d be spending more per Cat A minute on Sheehan and Kelleher than any other players in the squad below central contract level.
That problem is solved by one of those players getting a central contract but even then, that establishes a pecking order that will label one player as The Guy and the other as… not The Guy. That situation can get very expensive, very quickly.
When Kelleher signed his deal in 2021, he was the #1 guy and signed on terms appropriate with that status. Now Sheehan has, arguably, usurped that status for both Ireland and Leinster. Sure, you can contract both on similar terms and take that hit but Sheehan and Kelleher are both 24 and could arguably dominate those two spots for the duration – but you risk cutting off every prospect coming up behind them.
The same thing could well apply to Munster if we pair Kelleher with Barron as our long-term hooker pairing. An NIQ signing is almost always a bridge player that aims to establish younger prospects behind them. An IQ signing of 24-year-old current international nails down a spot for years.
That is not without risk but is Rónan Kelleher a Power Hooker? Yes. Does he improve our front-five rotation instantaneously? Yes. Can we sell him on better test prospects at Munster if he becomes the primary hooker here? Probably. He’ll be expensive too – and we’ve been “burned” before with Leinster internationals coming down here for game time in green – but I think it would be a good option to explore.
