In my last instalment on the front row – Signing A Hooker – it was my contention that, well, signing a power hooker, in particular, was a core part of Munster’s 2023/24. I still think that’s true but the problem I was describing was more to do with the general lack of tight power in our front-row rotation as much as it was about getting in a player that could beef up the “sting” of our maul.

Of the power hookers that are out there and currently available to sign ahead of 2023/24 the only real difference-maker is Malcolm Marx, a man that will be in high demand and comes with an incredibly expensive price tag. If we can sign Marx? Excellent.

But does that, alone, solve our tight power issues? It certainly beefs up our threat off the back of the maul and on the pivot off the lineout but in the aggregate of our Big Six power output, I think it’s only half the job. Over the last few weeks, one thing has been quite clear to me against Toulouse, Northampton and Leinster and that’s a radical need to get size into our propping ranks.

I’m quite happy with Munster’s future at tighthead prop, especially with Salanoa going so well. To be fully happy I’ll need to see Knox come back with something after his injury but overall, I think we’re in a decent place for the time being when it comes to the age of our options there and their quality.

On the loosehead side, though, I think we’re a bit away from where we need to be. I spoke in the first part of this series about Dave Kilcoyne’s contract and the need to make an adjustment there but that’s only part of the job at hand. Jeremy Loughman has established this season that he’s a very solid option with at least lower-level test potential but Josh Wycherley, for me, remains a top prospect with a lot of physical conditioning to add to his game.

Josh is still only 23/24 and while he’s added a good bit to his frame in the last year, he’s still got more to go in my opinion. Over the last season or two, Wycherley has consistently struggled with big, heavy tightheads who have got the drop on him physically at the scrum. Now I would say to you that the scrum doesn’t really matter at the moment but perception does matter over time and I think it’s fair enough to say that Josh is currently a small enough loosehead, relatively speaking. He’s a decent carrier, a good handler, and a good breakdown guy so my point is this – stick with him. He’s a real talent. By the time he’s 25 or 26 he could be test ready but for now, why not pair him, Loughman, and Donnelly/Ryan in the academy with a bigger, heavier, more experienced player?

I’d make the case as follows – if you get the right-sized loosehead prop, you could level up everyone in that front row and even keep around good squad characters like Niall Scannell in a way that signing someone like, say, Malcolm Marx doesn’t. Why? A big loosehead prop levels up our tightheads in training and buffs the ability of a good scrummager like Niall Scannell to be more dominant as a heavy support hooker. If we wanted to run a guy like Scott Buckley into more minutes, why not plant him next to a massive loosehead as part of that scrummaging triangle – loosehead/hooker/loosehead lock – to ease him into that area of the game?

Essentially, if it’s easier to run a hooker up to at least URC level quicker than it is a prop – and it is – and our read of Buckley’s level is that he’s ready to be an impact player for us sooner than Wycherley is ready to be a test bubble player, then adding a super-sized loosehead prop helps everyone in a way that adding an NIQ hooker does not.

Our overall attacking framework seems to be high-possession, high-tempo so you could make an argument that having a heavy anchor player to put in our main pod of three off the ruck or in that strike pod of three off #10 increases the space and platform that our backline has to play with.

So if we’re looking for a primary ball carrier, elite-sized loosehead prop there aren’t any readily available Irish-qualified options at that level. Daniel Brennan has been spoken about repeatedly over the last few years but, in the same way that signing Leinster fellas with tears in their eyes rarely works, getting a player in from Brive who sees himself as French in the hope that he’ll come around to playing for Munster so he can play for Ireland is an incredible risk given how expensive it would be.

For me, there’s only one legitimate option that I would go for in favour of a big-name Power Hooker.

Target #1 – Thomas Du Toit

Current Club: Cell C Sharks, South Africa.
Out of contract in 2023? : Yes
Physical Dimensions: 6’2″/136KG

Pros: Has the elite size and power that I’ve spoken about, is a massive leader and character that levels up our tight five as a whole and drives standards in training, is out of the Springbok reckoning for the World Cup as it stands so could join up in July.
Cons: Spent the last few years playing tighthead for the Sharks while playing mostly on the loosehead side whenever he’s played for the Springboks.

Thomas Du Toit is, for me, worth letting someone like Marx go if the choice were to come down to one or the other because of the overall levelling-up effect he would have on our tight five as a unit. He’s played a lot at tighthead, yes, but he’s just as heavy and direct on the other side of the scrum without the “crumpling in” balance problem that often comes with tighthead to loosehead transitions. I mean, it’s a fact is that Du Toit has played a significant amount of his pro rugby at loosehead and, as far as the Springboks are concerned, most of his caps have been with 1/17 on his back.

This is a guy who has been the club captain of the Sharks for the last few seasons so you’re getting that type of character into the front five too, which I think we’ve needed for a while, and he’s also a former Munster player.

He was here for four months in 2016/17 so he knows Limerick, knows the club and already has relationships with some of the guys he’d be playing with so there should be a short settling-in period, something which can’t really be predicted with other signings.

His height makes him an excellent lineout lifter and maul component on both sides of the ball and when you combine his power at the front of the lineout with guys like Edogbo and Ahern, you have a guy that could improve both and the entire lineout as a whole.

Du Toit is on and off-ball dominant with the kind of close-in power that could totally change up our conversion of 5m opportunities while also offering a killer defensive option in the same scenarios. Du Toit’s overall skill set and presence would, for me, offer more to our front five on a consistent basis and a better, bigger front five means a better platform for our ever-improving attacking framework.