There was widespread shock among the rugby community yesterday when Graham Rowntree departed his role as Munster head coach, just six games into this season and eighteen months after he claimed the province's first piece of silverware in over a decade.
Rowntree had been at Munster since he started a role as forwards coach in 2019 and took over as the man in charge when Johan Van Graan departed in 2022.
While the injury-stricken province had only won two of their opening six URC games this season, Rowntree had more than proven his worth when he led Munster to a URC win in 2023 before finishing last season atop the league table.
After the news broke yesterday morning, there was a clear sense of disappointment among the Munster faithful who felt aggrieved and let down at the way their most successful coach in over a decade had departed the South West.
26 October 2024; Munster coach Graham Rowntree relaxes on the field before the United Rugby Championship match between Hollywoodbets Sharks and Munster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban, South Africa. Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportsfile
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Bernard Jackman slams handling of Rowntree departure
Speaking on RTÉ's Rugby podcast, the all-knowing Bernard Jackman gave his assessment of what went wrong between Munster and their most successful coach of the last decade.
When his verdict landed, Jackman did little to spare the IRFU or Munster Rugby from criticism, slamming them for the way they supported Rowntree during his tenure in Limerick.
The only real blip (for Rowntree) was the Zebre game, like where's this come from? Has he stepped down? I do think if you're Graham Rowntree, Graham Rowntree is absolutely passionate and committed to Munster, he was, he's had five years there, he took on a bit of a basket case after Johaan.
I think there's been mismanagement of player development, there's been mismanagement of recruitment, there's been mismanagement of player spend for the last seven years and effectively this year he was asked to reduce his budget when it was pretty obvious to anyone in the street that they needed better players. That's a tough thing to do as a coach and if he wasn't allowed sign a loosehead prop last week that could drive a head-coach over the edge.
I do think he hasn't been supported (by Munster or the IRFU), I think if the Munster hierarchy felt they weren't getting the support of the IRFU, well do something about it like cause a racket, don't be a pawn in a game of chess.
While Jackman wasted no time identifying management issues as the root of the issue in Munster, he also suggested that 'fall guy' Graham Rowntree's success may have given Munster Rugby an out.
Potentially that URC title was a bad thing for them because the executive might have thought they were on the right track or they could get away with spending less. They may get a bounce out of a different voice, but realistically I think if you were a top-six coach in any of the other regions you wouldn't swap your squad for the Munster squad as it is today.
If you're Graham Rowntree you're the fall guy, you have to come out and answer the press whenever twice a week and make excuses and promise to get them better, but maybe betters not good enough.. but that's not just Graham Rowntree's fault that's an executive issue as well.
Despite the turmoil surrounding his departure, Jackman was in no doubt that Munster fans would look back on the time with fond memories.
He'll go and get a great job somewhere else and in hindsight people will look and see what he had and realise he did a hell of a job, he brought through a lot of young players.
While Rowntree's successor is yet to be found, judging by Bernard Jackman's scathing assessment of the state of Munster rugby, simply appointing a new coach may only be enough to slow the flood.
Whether Munster get their dream man for the role or not, whoever takes over will undoubtedly need a sizeable resource package to return Munster to its rightful place with the best teams in Europe.
