I’ve been lucky enough to be in this business for seven seasons now – two of them as an amateur barely scraping by and two as someone earning less than minimum wage for 70 hour+ weeks and the last three as someone on the same money as I was on when I got out of college in 2004. It’s cool, though, I genuinely do love it. In that time, you get yourself into a position to hear things – lots of things – before they get announced on the official website. I don’t do scoops on those things that I hear for reasons that will become obvious later but they do give me a broader context on things as they are, rather than how they are perceived.
Earlier in the autumn, I heard from multiple people that Johann Van Graan was signed up for another two years at Munster Rugby. When you hear that from as many people as I did who were sure, very sure, that the deal was done you take it that it’s done-done.
So, when Johann Van Graan announced through the Munster Rugby website on Tuesday that he would be leaving at the end of the season, you can imagine my surprise.
I had heard rumblings last week that there were “issues” but I thought they were related to the news reports that had begun to show up in the press the week of the South African tour, combined with general stress associated with everything else going on in the build-up to that Wasps game.
I’d heard a few weeks prior (mid to late November) that Johann was supposedly talking to Bath, the basement club in the Gallagher Premiership and a club in bad need of a reset on and off the field. I didn’t really read much into those rumours as they seemed like wishful thinking more than anything else.
News reports with those same rumours came a few days later in the Rugby Paper and then later in the Irish Independent and the 42. My initial reaction to those stories was that they were, well, wrong because, after all, Johann Van Graan was signed to a new deal as far as I knew, and not just signed recently either – he was signed over the summer on a contract that had been agreed late last season.
There was an element of 1+1= 11 about the rumours. Bath are in awful shape and they are looking for a new coach to rebuild with, especially given this season doesn’t have relegation so, in effect, it’s a completely fresh slate to build off for a new coach. Johann fits that bill perfectly as an excellent squad builder with great contacts and, at least as far as was publicly known, he was off contract at the end of this season. It’s not like he could possibly do any worse than they’re doing now, let’s put it that way.
Sometimes stories come out in the rugby press that are completely made up. They are rarely made up by the journalist themselves – although that isn’t unheard of. Nonsense stories mostly get passed to journalists through the following channels;
- People with a past record of getting things right who’ve got their wires crossed.
- People who those people know who usually gets things right got bad information, which they then pass up the chain.
- An agent looking to generate a bit of “energy” in an ongoing negotiation.
If you have a big enough presence in the rugby media, these stories will make their way to you one way or another. I don’t mean to slap myself on the back with that, it just is what it is.
So when I heard from a few people that Van Graan was supposedly talking to Bath in November, I thought it was a natural story to fit together, but that it was most likely nonsense coming from people 1 & 2 in the above list.
After all, why would Johann be talking to Bath if he was on contract for next season at Munster?
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So fast forward to Tuesday evening. Van Graan’s announcement was a few hours old by that point and stories are flying everywhere, texts are shooting into Whatsapp so fast it’s like bullets cracking off brick.
I recorded a podcast with what I believed to be the most likely answer in the afternoon – that the deal was agreed but never actually signed. That would make sense as per the announcement on the Munster Rugby website where Van Graan stated that;
“While I was at advanced stages in the contract process earlier this year, I took a step back and reconsidered my options, prioritising what’s best for my family, myself, and Munster Rugby.”
Maybe people got it wrong. An easy mistake to make. A deal agreed can sometimes become a deal signed through the game of Telephone that is The Rumour Mill, after all.
But I learned yesterday evening that he had signed a new deal as I’d originally heard and that he had activated his release clause, a standard instrument present in all IRFU coaching contracts. Yes, that’s the same clause used by Rassie Erasmus to exit his deal in the summer of 2017 that, in turn, lead to Van Graan being hired in the first place, you are remembering that right. Funny how things work.
So the question is why? Why, if Johann Van Graan had a contract signed, would he want to leave early?
The answer is that there is no one answer. A life decision like this is made for a number of reasons. Money plays a part, sure. The “way of life” for the family plays a part, too. Stuff like long term aims play a part too – understanding your role at a club over a period of years and knowing the right time to jump while your value is highest.
All of these are part of the decision.
A lot of reporting has come out about this since yesterday. Both Gerry Thornley and Murray Kinsella have extensive pieces that are worth your time. I heard the exact same things in those articles since yesterday albeit with the added bit of information that, supposedly, there was nothing in place with Bath at the time of the statement released yesterday.
Then this morning Bath announced Van Graan as their new head coach where he will seemingly work under Director of Rugby Stuart Hooper on a “long term deal”.
But again, let’s be careful about 1 + 1 = 11.
Bath are badly in need a coach of Johann’s quality for next season so whenever that guy became available – and availability is flexible for every coach these days – then they would have to move quickly, whenever that is. I’m not so naive to think that Johann handed in his notice yesterday, Bruce Craig picked up the phone at 3 o’clock and a deal was done before the kids were in bed but situations like this are complex. The optics on this look bad on the face of it, but the bad smell is – to me – an accidental fusion of circumstances rather than some grand scheme from everything that I’ve come to understand.
That challenge of Bath could be very appealing to Johann. He is a good coach – a very good coach – who has done well at Munster with the squad he inherited and had no issue whatsoever in bringing in big voices like Stephen Larkham and Graham Rowntree when the space was there to hire them. He isn’t a guy who is afraid of change, let’s put it that way. I genuinely do think that he’ll be missed around the place because the perception you often see of Van Graan in the comment section of websites, on Facebook or on Twitter isn’t really shared around the place at Munster.
Sure, he’s like every coach in that some players think they should be playing more, not less and, as a result, are less than fond of him, professionally speaking but that’s a tale as old as time at every club.
I would feel safe enough saying that Johann is very well-liked around the place and that isn’t going to change after this announcement, despite the surprising nature of it.
What of this supposed interference and overt influence by the “1014 Group”?
As per Murray Kinsella’s piece;
The PGC is intended to be the key influence in all professional rugby matters in Munster, but it’s understood that van Graan has felt some outside pressure around player signings and squad planning more recently. That said, it’s thought the outside backers were also keen to see a greater return on their investment into the province. Munster have not yet won a trophy during van Graan’s tenure.
This is exactly what I was told, more or less.
Little is known about the 1014 Group of outside investors who have been funding certain aspects of Munster’s recruitment and retention for the last few years, similar to how Johnny Sexton’s contract was topped up after returning from Racing 92 in 2016 and how Jamie Heaslip’s was part-funded in the same manner in 2017. And rightly so. They are private citizens.
You’ll have heard of them – without hearing about them – when Munster signed Damian De Allende and RG Snyman one a half seasons ago. They are not a new grouping. They have been around for a good long while and are part of a wider network of patrons – Munster fans – who have the means to contribute more to the club than just buying tickets and merchandise. A form of this group exist at every major club. And they are appreciated. If I had the money, I’d be one of them and you probably would too.
Are they causing friction behind the scenes as has been implied?
It’s hard to know for sure. They certainly had no issue shelling out big money for two World Class players in RG Snyman and Damian De Allende when asked but it’s nobody’s fault that RG, for example, will ultimately only play 54 minutes of rugby over two seasons. Players get injured, it happens. That luck was particularly cruel but it comes with the territory of the sports business. There is no return on investment there if the return we’re talking about is joy at a won trophy.
A fit RG Snyman likely puts Munster over the top in a few big knockout games we lost last season but that’s sport.
Some would suggest that their “influence” – in the nebulous way it has been defined anyway – has grown to a level that is undesirable to Van Graan. I thought this too, initially, when I heard about it but the more I thought about it, the less sense it made. If you’re happy to benefit from the signing of two players of the calibre of Snyman and De Allende among others then there’s a level of “game-playing” that comes with that. If that means a bit of yeah-yeah-yeah and plamásing, so be it. Van Graan would know that more than anyone – he’s the son of Barend van Graan, the man who was CEO of the Blue Bulls for many years – none of that work with outside sponsors or wealthy backers will be new to him.
This is the part of the coaching gig that you don’t see in the seminars; dealing with business, sponsors and other interests that are away from the training paddock but every bit part of the job as naming a team and fist fighting with Stephen Larkham in the carpark to determine whether it’s Kick Mode or Offload Mode for the weekend. Please allow me this gag – it’s been a rough few days.
Realistically though, is this enough of a reason to walk away from a job like Munster for a man like Johann? I’m having a hard time believing that, to be honest.
Perhaps it played a part – I’ve had overenthusiastic patrons suggest all manner of things to me that I should be doing and I’m just a guy with a website – but for it to be the main reason for Johann to leave?
I don’t buy it. That isn’t the Johann Van Graan I know. He agreed a deal to stay at the club around the same time we lost to Leinster and Toulouse last season when he was accused of everything short of being the man who invented box kicking. This is a guy who can’t deal with a sponsor being overenthusiastic a few short months later?
I can buy dealing with an overenthusiastic patron being a small slice of the pie but I think a far more likely reason is timing.
If Johann had an exit in his contract and Bath were looking for a coach NOW, then what better time to make the jump when his value is highest? Say Johann stuck with the two year deal he signed, realistically, do you see him getting another Munster contract after that at the time that guys like O’Gara and a tonne of other international coaches coming off contract post-World Cup 2023? I don’t. Maybe a fine load of money and a long term – 3 years at least – offer with freedom to sign who you want, play who you want when you want with no more oversight than the DOR in the same building as you was too attractive to turn down.
If Johann Van Graan wants to bring in a player to Munster he has to ask David Nucifora for dispensation, who will weigh it up based on what’s in the other provinces, what’s already in Munster historically, and in the wider national pool. Next season, all he need do is see if Bruce Craig’s debit card is working.
Yes, it’s complicated and multifaceted. It’s a bit of a shock and a disappointment, sure, but maybe this is for the best in the end.
For Johann, for Munster and for the IRFU.
I wish him nothing but the best because he’s given nothing but his best to Munster.
