At this stage in Munster’s season, I think anyone with an eye curated to system rugby can get a good idea of where Munster need to improve from a role build perspective.

Last season, Graham Rowntree had a front-row seat – no pun intend… actually, I quite like that so I intend it now – during the time when he was going through the interview process for the head coach role so he would have had an idea of what he wanted to change as a necessity. When you go through head coach processes at that level, you’re making presentations at almost every stage laying out what you’re going to do from a club-building perspective on and off the field within the constraints laid out by the prospective employer.

Rowntree would have been in the squad meetings and, unlike the other applicants, he’d have had an excellent grasp of the down-chart and young talent that Munster had. In an environment where he would have to cut costs in his first season – no scope for the instant improvement that most coaches would want to give themselves the best chance of succeeding in their vision – most of what Rowntree would look to do would be based on improving the player base with a more progressive, on-ball, definitive game plan and a direct investment in heavy metal coaching set up.

Convincing Denis Leamy and Mike Prendergast to leave Leinster and Racing 92 might have been easy but it wouldn’t come cheap

For example, look at the guys Rassie brought in mid-way through the off-season and right before the Champions Cup in his first season – Rhys Marshall, Jean Kleyn and then guys like Jaco Taute, Thomas Du Toit and, latterly, Jean Deysel. He needed those players to augment a side that, prior to his arrival, had drastically underperformed and what he wanted to do over the course of the season could not be done without them.

Though, when you sign a guy like Erasmus to a DOR position like that – seen at the time as a massive coup, which it was – you don’t nickel and dime him on the dispensation he needs to bring in the guys he thinks he needs to be successful.

This was a different situation, almost from the jump.

Most of what Graham Rowntree and his newly formed coaching unit were looking to implement would be entirely new for the players at their disposal, so they didn’t know what type of player we’d need to improve in this scenario. Sure, the signing of Antoine Frisch in late April, eight days after Rowntree was confirmed as the new head coach, was a nod to what we’d need from midfield under Mike Prendergast – a ball-dominant, high PPC midfielder that could act as a wider playmaker in a high possession system – but there was no scope for three or four bespoke system fits.

Erasmus, for example, knew that he needed a midfielder who understood the defensive requirements of a high blitz combined with kick pressure – Taute got that more than Saili so the medical joker signing worked out perfectly, as did the two-year deal afterwards. Erasmus also needed more size in the pack so got in Kleyn to partner Donnacha Ryan to massive success because Erasmus’ kick pressure game needs a massive, heavy lineout, maul and scrum. He didn’t need to get a box-kicking #9 and a controlling #10 because they were already in the squad, along with a system-fit front row and back row.

Rowntree came into an environment fully aware that, bar Frisch who was a late enough signing based on an extra home gate, he would be working with the deck he had available at the start of the season.

Munster have already announced the signing of Alex Nankivell and John Ryan for next season but, as of yet, no one else. In fact, they’ve only confirmed all of the players that won’t be at the province next season.

Malakai Fekitoa, Chris Farrell and Dan Goggin are all being released or have been released already, with James French departing for the Shute Shield and a rumoured provincial switch on his return. I’d expect another five or six senior players not to be renewed for next season as it currently stands.

If we look at this season as Foundation year, where we establish the framework that we’re going to build around in the next few years, then identifying good system fits is a key part of the process.

After watching Munster for most of the season, I have a few key areas that I think we need to develop ahead of next season.

Half Lock

In the post-Peter O’Mahony era, do not be shocked to see Munster deploying a dedicated, full-sized half-lock in the back five going forward.

I know I’ve been talking about this for a while now but two main factors prevent Munster from utilising the obvious answer to our tight power issue over the last two seasons.

The first is every Munster fan’s favourite word – injuries. For most of the last few years, Munster have barely had two fully fit senior second rows available at any one time, never mind the four or five you’d need to make a three-lock pack work consistently.

We have managed to play a three-lock pack five times in the last three seasons with Tadhg Beirne and Fineen Wycherley the two players used in that role (we won three of those games) which is no surprise as they are the two players in our pack who primarily play as locks who fit the description.

In the last few months, we’ve seen Gavin Coombes adjust his role to be a defacto Half-Lock Power Forward hybrid in the back row to add more lineout involvements in scenarios where both O’Mahony and O’Donoghue are off the field for Hodnett and Kendellen. That role suits Coombes, to an extent, especially as he tries to add more versatility to his all-round game to increase his value to Ireland, but it takes a valuable ball carrier and compression generator away from the midfield channels and uses more of his energy in the teeth of the maul. Is it the best use of his talents? It’s not the worst, by any means, but I still feel that having a defacto heavy lineout forward that can operate in the tight channels as a heavy carrier and one-man cleaner is the optimal build for this team.

The other obstacle to that is that our current captain plays an adjacent, but quite a different role for Ireland and Munster. O’Mahony is an excellent heavy combo flanker and one of the best lineout forwards in the game on both sides of the ball but his natural position is to file off to the edge of the attacking and defensive line. He’s really good in this area of the field and, while he’s certainly capable of coming in to play tighter, that isn’t something that he’s been schemed to do regularly for either Ireland or Munster.

You could move Fineen Wycherley back into that half-lock role – he’s already playing it, so just add in two super-size locks ahead of him – and you get a lot of the qualities we’re talking about. Lineout calling, action on both sides of the throw, decent carrying, high work rate but Fineen’s breakdown accuracy and impact has fluctuated wildly. Cian Hurley is signed on a one year deal and seems perfectly suited for the role but after watching a lot of his Munster, Munster A and Garryowen work this year I need to see a bit more of him to assess his level.

There had been talking around the place of Munster being interested in Leinster’s Alex Soroka this season and, while I have no idea about the outcome of that talking, it does give you an idea of the type of back five role player we’re looking at if those rumours have any substance.

If he signs, great. If not, we have a very young but very high-potential young player who could fit that role down to a tee.

Brian Gleeson.

Gleeson is still u19 – to the point, he’ll be u20 again next season – but at 6’5″ and around 110kg, he’s the exact size profile to fit this role and if you watch his game for the Ireland u20s, you’ll see why. Sure, he’s a big carrier but he’s a dominant defensive player, a heavy hitter at the ruck and he’s got the set-piece chops to be a core lineout jumper. The downsides? He’s 19. Raw. Inexperienced and a Year One academy player but is he any more unproven than Soroka at this stage?

I can see the logic for a possible pursuit of Soroka because he’s got a huge upside in a position that is going to become even more important in the next few seasons but I think the possible solution is in the squad already or it will be next season.

Up Next – The Prop Problem.