What’s The Story With

Munster were always going to need a tighthead this season, in both the short and medium term.

Last week, I looked at the medium-term options. Once it became clear that Roman Salanoa was not going to make his way back for the opening block of games – and, as a result, not be a player that could be relied on to give us 12/13 games this season — a short-term signing was always going to be needed. But this was broadly expected as inevitable since the summer. So the question came down to who that signing should be?

It’s Michael Ala’alatoa, who joins the province until the end of the season.

Ala’alatoa, 34 this year, is available after some mid-season cost-cutting at Clermont Auvergne, who have also parted ways with Folou Fainga’a for broadly the same reasons. Ala’alatoa, who joined Clermont last season after three years at Leinster, was going to be out of contract at the end of this season regardless, so when the opportunity came up at Munster, it made sense for everyone involved to make the deal happen until the end of the season.

So what’s the story with Michael Ala’alatoa?

The Samoan captain brings almost everything you’d expect from him — defensive stopping power, heavy scrummaging and buckets of experience in the games across Europe and the URC that we will need him for. That was a key consideration for Munster with this signing; whoever was going to come in wouldn’t have a preseason or any time at all, really, to get up to speed with the scrummaging requirements, in particular, of the URC and European Cup, so that shrunk the field considerably.

Clayton McMillan’s contact list in New Zealand is extensive. Still, at this stage of the season, you’re either looking for a sabbatical release or a punt on an NPC player that isn’t contracted to a Super Rugby Pacific side for next season. Sabbaticals are expensive, which isn’t an issue for Munster at the moment, but they’re fiendishly difficult to arrange.

One of the things you’ll notice about the recent sabbaticals we’ve seen in the Irish system — Angus Bell, Jordi Barrett and Rieko Ioane — is that none of those men have children. The second that kids are involved, it instantly complicates any short-term deal when it comes to signing someone who is currently based in the Southern Hemisphere. If it’s a two-year deal, you can make that work, but a six or nine-month deal is harder to sell to the player and family, even with the money involved.

When it comes to NPC players, you can find players with the right physical dimensions relatively easily and cheaply. Still, the biggest issue is the risk of adapting to the rigours of URC/European Cup rugby on top of a move halfway across the world. That would work if July is your starting point — you can slowly bring them up to speed, if needs be — but the requirements for a signing in November were always going to be immediate.

Munster need someone who can contribute now, from the Stormers, to Bath, to Gloucester and then on through the rest of the bloc, with a predictable, proven record. That fits Michael Ala’alatoa down to the ground.

It’s fair to say that it hasn’t really worked out for him in Clermont, despite his relatively high-profile signing. Fan opinion on him seems to be split, but I think it’s fair to say that he was signed to fulfil the same role for Clermont that he did for Leinster — a solid, tighthead anchor who can see out big games off the bench against heavy-hitting opponents, and rotate in for lower-level games. That can sometimes be hard to parse. On the face of it, he is a Big Name signed from a side challenging for top European honours,

Top 14 2024/25 (Clermont)

8 appearances, largely in rotation.
235 minutes total → ~29.4 mins per game.
Used primarily as a tighthead stabiliser rather than an 80-minute anchor.

Champions Cup 2024–25 (Clermont)

5 appearances, 205 minutes (~41 mins per game).
Role = scrum anchor, maul/cleanout grunt, experienced bench/start option in heavy fixtures (Benetton, Leinster, Bath, Bristol, Northampton).

Quick read on his Clermont usage

Picked for the heaviest-contact games, often sharing load with Ojovan/Montagne.
Mainly used in the European Cup.
Minutes profile screams “trusted impact/settler”:
Brought on to close scrums, hit rucks, and shore up maul D.
Rarely penalised; stat logs show very low card/sanction footprint, which fits his Leinster profile too, bar that high-profile card in the dying moments of the 2023 Heineken Cup final.

At Clermont, Ala’alatoa has been used as a specialist tighthead closer: low-error, low-flash, relatively high-trust minutes, but if Clermont fans felt they were buying in a ceiling raiser, that isn’t really what Ala’alatoa is about.

Ala’alatoa – last-year profile vs other tightheads

Low gainline / carrying threat

Across four samples (PNC, RWC qualifiers, Champions Cup, Top 14):

41 carries for 35m → ~0.85m per carry. Scans with a guy who primarily carries in close contact.
Radar percentiles for metres carried sit in the bottom 10–25% of props in each competition.
He carries, but almost exclusively as a short, static option: set-up man, not a dents-and-offloads prop.

Minimal attacking end-product

Metres and carry volume all track in the bottom bands of the radars, even allowing for the heavier TOP14 traffic.
Confirms what the tape shows: he’s not there to extend sequences or add deception, he’s there to reset them.

Mixed but generally serviceable defence

Tackle completion ranges from ~74–91%, averaging about 80% across the charts.
That’s fine, but and verges on really good for an experienced tighthead; he’s not a high-miss liability, and he’s a solid pillar in the right system.
Spikes:
- PNC sample: 82% with 2 dominant tackles (100th percentile) – small minutes, but shows he can generate heavy shots.
- Champions Cup: 91% with 1 turnover won – best of the sample.
In the Top 14 slice, he’s down at 74%: pressure there drags his aggregate down, albeit in the context of a struggling Clermont side in the most physical tight five league on the planet.

Overall Read

Ala’alatoa’s last-year data paints him as a classic system tighthead: low meters, low jackal count, limited headline moments, but steady minutes and generally solid tackle work. You’re buying scrum stability and clean ruck detail rather than ball-carrying punch, albeit with substantial compression data inside the 22 — he draws 2+ tacklers 82% of the time.

So why are Munster signing him?

Where he is in his career

34 years old tighthead, heavy mileage with Crusaders → Leinster → Clermont → Samoa.
The last 12 months of data show:
- Low-volume, short-yardage carrier.
- Very solid tackle completion.
- Still technically strong at scrum and maul, trusted for 20–40 minute shifts in big games.
That’s classic “specialist system prop in his late phase” rather than a medium/long-term cornerstone.

Why he fits Munster short term

Tighthead insurance, not a reset

Munster’s depth chart is strong on names but vulnerable on:

Age/usage (John Ryan).
Injury history (Salanoa).
Heavy minutes and concussion worries (Jager).
Fringe options/academy still being blooded.

Dropping Ala’alatoa in on a short deal:

Gives you an instantly plug-and-play Test-level scrummager.
Protects you if Jager is out or Ryan needs managing.
Means you’re not forcing big URC/Champions Cup minutes onto kids or cross-cover projects.

You’re basically buying: 40 reliable minutes at tighthead, with low penalty risk and zero learning curve.

Role perfectly matches his data

His data screams:

Anchor, not weapon.
Solid defender, occasional dominant shot, decent carry numbers.

That’s exactly the profile you want as:

Scrum closer when protecting a lead.
A stabiliser when injuries or rotation leave you exposed.
Training standard-setter: raises the level of daily scrummaging without needing to feature every single week, even though he might well be expected to do that during December.

The move for Michael Ala’alatoa on a short-term deal is a classic ‘floor-raiser’ signing. At 34, he’s not coming in to change how we play or to block a pathway for Foxe or, down the chart, Kieran Ryan. His last-year numbers say exactly what the video has always said: low-flash, low-penalty, system-tighthead minutes built on scrum stability and solid defensive work.

In a season where Jager’s workload has to be managed and John Ryan can’t go on forever, Ala’alatoa is the kind of short-term NIQ who protects the set-piece, buys recovery time for injured tightheads and keeps the standards high in training, all without tying Munster to a long-term project that doesn’t fit his stage of career.