Donal Lenihan believes that Crusaders coach Scott Robertson is "a perfect fit" for the Munster head coach job. Munster are in the search for a new Head Coach as Johann van Graan announced he will leave Munster at the end of this season and join Bath.
Many people have been linked to the Munster job like Mike Prendergast and Paul O'Connell but there's no clear front runner as of yet after Ronan O'Gara announced he wouldn't be taking the job. This has left many to speculate, including Donal Lenihan who said he would choose Robinson if he could pick anyone. Speaking about Robertson the RTÉ Rugby podcast, Lenihan said;
I think he would be the perfect fit. Now that he’s been overlooked by New Zealand and with Joe Schmidt coming into the New Zealand set-up, that could be closed off for Robertson for a while.
He’s relatively young in coaching and he’s expressed a desire that he wants to coach in every league in the world."
Lenihan spoke of spending a half hour in Robertson's presence at the 2019 World Cup and was completely floored by his charisma.
"I had a half-hour chat and he was infectious.
"I came out thinking that I’d love to be involved with him. I’d love to be playing under him, I’d love to be a management group with him."
Robertson is currently fourth favourite to get the position according to some bookies.
Scott Robertson has been head coach of the Crusaders since 2017 and in that time has won three Super Rugby championships and two Super Rugby Aoteroa titles too. He's helped bring through amazing talent like Richie Mo'unga, Will Jordan and Scott Barrett. He's been touted as next in line for the head position with the All Blacks but hasn't been picked up as of yet, despite New Zealand's poor results in November.
Robertson was an accomplished player in his day as well. He won 22 caps for the All Blacks in the early 2000's and spent a few years playing in France with Perpignan, so he has some knowledge of Northern Hemisphere rugby. Ronan O'Gara also worked under him at the Crusaders so Robertson there's a good link there.
This move will be somewhat unlikely to happen as Robertson did just sign a new contract over the summer but if he was to be lured to Europe, there's not many better teams to join than Munster. It will be fun to see if he can bring his breakdancing to Thomond.
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