If everyone else is the problem, then maybe you’re the problem.
Whoever came up with this cliched kernel probably didn’t aim to create a rod for the back of Munster Rugby. Inadvertently or otherwise, the expression has become useful when analysing the province’s coaching history.
As the new man in charge of the Red Army, Clayton McMillan is Munster’s seventh head coach – interim or otherwise – in the past 13 years. In his recent autobiography, which was largely a love letter to his old province, Conor Murray criticised what he saw as a coaching “churn”.
Coaching stability is widely seen as one of the pillars required for success in rugby. Look how long Andy Farrell has been in charge of Ireland, or Leo Cullen at Leinster. (Granted, the latter has not achieved the levels of success demanded by their supporters.)
Munster’s issue doesn’t seem to be the identification of leaders capable of building a winning environment. Of those seven recent coaches, three of the four who went on to different jobs have won silverware elsewhere. They just couldn’t do so at Munster.
Former Munster head coach Graham Rowntree (centre) with his backroom team of (from left) George Murray, Mike Prendergast, Denis
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