There are very few truly world-class outside backs in the modern game. That is due to the massive demands that are placed on all the positions – right-wing, left-wing, inside centre, outside centre, fullback – from an intellectual and physical perspective in 2021. It has never been more difficult to be truly “complete” as an outside back because the requirements have never been wider. You can’t just be a truck it up midfielder, you can’t just be a finisher winger, you can’t just be a fullback that’s good under the high ball with a big boot – well, actually, that’s not true. You can be just those things but you will find your ceiling limited unless you’re a very specific component of a very specific system.
To be truly elite, you have to be more. Each outside back position comes with an evergrowing list of demands – offensively, defensively and in the transition space between both – and those demands grow every season, it seems. Do you remember when a winger “coming off his wing looking for work” was rare enough to be remarked upon? That’s expected as a standard now in the majority of attacking schemes and that’s before we get to the defensive load most wingers face these days as a matter of course.
Munster have two of these elite talents in my opinion – Damian De Allende and Keith Earls. I would be surprised if either player was lacing them up for Munster next season, which sounds alarming but it’s a part of the wider trend of depth chart flux in the outside back division across multiple depth charts.
Of the five senior players that are capable of playing midfield in the Munster squad, only one is contracted beyond the end of next season. There is a possibility of some of the back three lining up as an outside centre during the season but that is to be determined. When you include those, there are nine players capable of running in those two positions. That isn’t unusual, necessarily. Most sides will have positional “bloat” of some kind in some area of the squad depending on their options going forward, especially when there are key players to be replaced.
I remember Munster’s flyhalf depth chart in 2018, for example, drawing a tonne of ire (from Leinster fan accounts, weirdly enough) because there were five senior players contracted that year, namely Joey Carbery, Tyler Bleyendaal, JJ Hanrahan, Bill Johnston, Ian Keatley.
One season later, Keatley and Johnston were gone.
One season after that, Bleyendaal was gone.
This past season, Hanrahan moved on.
As ever, with any squad chart, if you see a lot of senior names capable of playing in one position, it’s best to extend your thinking to a two-year gap. In 2018/19, Munster saw a chance to add a potential long term CORE 1 starter to the squad, so they “bulked” the position for one year until they could offload players from the chart, either through contracts running down naturally or, in Bill Johnston’s case, moving him on to Ulster. This was all in a situation where talented younger players were being ID’d down the charts in the academy and even below that as potential longer-term options.
It’s a good idea to view Munster’s multiple midfield options in a similar light. It’s not just about this season, about next season and the year after.
| Player | Position | Age in Jan 1 2022 | Grade | Contract Year in 2022? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damian De Allende | Midfield | 30 | CORE 1/PRIORITY 1 | YES |
| Chris Farrell | Midfield | 28 | CORE 1 | YES |
| Rory Scannell | Midfield | 28 | SQUAD 2 | NO |
| Alex McHenry | Midfield | 24 | ASSESS 1 | YES |
| Dan Goggin | Midfield/Wing | 27 | SQUAD 2 | YES |
How do you replace a guy like Damian De Allende? Not easily and not cheaply, that’s for sure. Ideally, you wouldn’t replace him at all and re-sign him for another two-season spell as he’s comfortably one of the best players in the world in his position, and what team doesn’t want more of that? That isn’t up to Munster, though – not fully. You have to convince De Allende to re-sign, which is one thing, but then you have to get IRFU dispensation, which can be context-specific and difficult to obtain.
De Allende is easily a CORE 1 tier started for Munster in our midfield as it is currently constructed. He is easily one of the highest-paid players in the squad but that is commensurate with his ability and status as an elite player in either midfield slot. There’s no way to separate that fact, however, from the wider need across the provinces to trim the wage bill in light of the economic shock of the pandemic. De Allende – rumoured to be earning in and around €500k per year – would go a long way to easing that need.
Sometimes you can split your outside backs into two slots – those you want distributing the ball more often than not, and those you want to be distributed to more often than not. De Allende is unique in that he’s arguably both – someone capable of being a short to mid-range distributor who’s more than capable of winning collisions, breaking the line and doing big damage ball in hand. The only other guy who fits that template for me is the recently re-signed Simon Zebo, but I’ll get to him in the next article.
The key for Munster will be finding the right blend of distributors and distributees in our backline build.
This isn’t something you can put together in isolation either – it has to reflect your pack in general and your ball carrying rotation specifically.
Ahead of 2020/21, Munster were looking for a midfield component that could boost our pack as it was at the time. If you go back to look at our game against Saracens in the European Champions Cup in 2018/19, you’ll see Chris Farrell being used as a primary ball carrier for us on a day where, once again, we came up short against Saracens power. The signing of RG Snyman was a way to combat this power differential but De Allende, if anything, was a more direct method to address it.
De Allende, when used appropriately, is like another ball carrying forward that, when used in tandem with Chris Farrell – who also fits that bill – you can carry a more “support forward” orientated pack, as Munster had in 2018/19.
With Chris Farrell’s contract also coming due this season, Munster will have a decision to make that will have wider implications on style.
Essentially, if Munster can get dispensation to re-sign De Allende for one or two years, do we also want to take on the high value, non-central contract expense it will take to re-sign Chris Farrell over the same period? Does the signing of Jenkins, the hopeful return of RG Snyman and the emergence of Coombes as a primary ball carrier – let alone the possible emergence of a guy like Hodnett, Ahern and others – reduce the need for two big-hitting midfielders in midfield? If it does, is there value in moving to a double playmaker system that sees a guy like Crowley get regular reps at #12?
These questions have to be added to the decision matrix on our decisions with Farrell and De Allende.
Retaining De Allende would be excellent but I would rate it as quite unlikely right now. There are just too many variables with his value soaring, IRFU dispensation and our contract ceiling. There’s a price point where he might re-sign, sure, assuming Munster get permission to re-sign him but is that price palatable to Munster? Should he be retained at all costs? That is far from clear. If De Allende moves on, re-signing Farrell as a primary midfield hitter would make sense on the face of it but he’d be far from a cut-price option.
Farrell signed on an initial two-year deal in 2017/18 but re-upped that a season early with a new three-year extension in October 2018 that will take him to the end of this season. Since then, he’s settled into a good spot as an international regular during a period where Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw have regularly been injured. Chris Farrell isn’t a certain starter at test level to the point where he’d be in the central contract discussion, but he’s a regular in the test bubble who’d likely be looking for a significant wage bump in line with that status.
Is he “worth” that investment? As a CORE 1 level player, you would say yes but it’s far from an open and shut decision, for both parties. Will Farrell be tempted by an offer to go back to Ulster, should they be interested? Perhaps. That could make sense for them to balance out their roster with McCloskey and Hume.
If an offer comes in from abroad, which is also possible, will Farrell’s status with the Ireland squad be enough to keep him in the country at the wage tier Munster will see him on?
Is the contract level required to keep Farrell at the club the best use of resources by Munster and, could an internal or external replacement be better value and/or a better fit for the style required going forward?
These are all pertinent questions.
It’s not out of the question that Munster could lose both Farrell and De Allende this year. At this stage, it’s hard to determine how this key area of the squad will play out.
Munster will be limited in a scenario if De Allende doesn’t re-sign, as we would be highly unlikely to get clearance for an NIQ midfield replacement in that scenario. A guy like Dan Kelly – who is now off the table as he’s locked to England – would have been an interesting move but I get the feeling that, if Munster are to move on, it won’t be with both players leaving unless there is a radical shift in style or a breakthrough season from down the chart talent.
Down the chart, Rory Scannell and Dan Goggin add senior experience to both midfield slots.
Scannell is a SQUAD 2 tier player, for me, and despite having a mixed last few seasons from a performance perspective I think he’s got the potential to have a productive season in the 50/22 era, his first of a new two-year contract signed last season.
Dan Goggin has the versatility to cover both midfield slots and the wing, which is a valuable thing. All he needs is to stay fit, something that has eluded him over the course of the last few seasons at Munster. If he can, I do not doubt that he can have a productive season. He’ll need that time on the field in a post-pandemic contract season where, like last year, guys at his tier level north of 25 without involvement at test level can find themselves squeezed. If he gets enough minutes on-field, I think he can really show his value.
Much of the same thinking applies to Alex McHenry, who needs some good involvements in an ASSESS 1 year – his second season on a one-year senior contract. Ideally, I’d like to know a bit more about what McHenry can bring at this level from a skillset perspective after very limited minutes last season due to badly timed injuries.
Are McHenry and Goggin competing for the same contract as a down chart strike running partner to Rory Scannell? It’s too early to say, because it relates to Munster’s playmaking situation at halfback and in the back three. They could, potentially, even play alongside each other but we’ll have to see how the season develops.
The midfield is the most complex chart on the squad because of the potential flux over the next season.
I would suggest that Goggin would be a solid re-sign ahead going into a World Cup period given his experience, proven ability and relatively lower cost in the grand scheme of things, given he can provide good coverage in three slots. McHenry just needs to show that he’s a player that can compete at this level. From there, Munster need to see what is possible with De Allende and, if he’s a no go, make the rest of their decisions from there. As a result, I would imagine Munster have already been speaking to De Allende about an extension and the rest will flow from the outcome of those discussions.
Things become more complex when you consider the possibility of Shane Daly or Liam Coombes getting a run as a strike running outside centre but, for all I know, they could be considered as wingers only. Coombes did quite well in the Red VS Grey runout last weekend but who knows how long term an arrangement that is. I’ll speak about them more fully in the second last Depth Chart article of the preseason on the back three coming Monday.
