MUNSTER HEAD COACH Graham Rowntree says that the province are actively seeking short-term cover at loosehead prop, a position in which four of his first-team squad are currently unavailable due to injury.
During last Saturday’s defeat to the Stormers, Jeremy Loughman was added to a treatment room which already includes long-term absentees Josh Wycherely (neck) and Mark Donnelly (ankle), as well as Dave Kilcoyne who is yet to feature this season having picked up an ankle injury while recovering from shoulder surgery.
That leaves only academy players Kieran Ryan and George Hadden as specialist options at loosehead, while John Ryan may switch across from tighthead for Saturday’s meeting with the Sharks in Durban.
And Rowntree made no bones about Munster’s need to draft in further cover at the position when he was asked if he had explored the market in the days since Loughman’s injury.
“Of course, I have, yeah,” said Rowntree. “That’s an urgent thing to be getting on with. We’ll see how that unfolds.”
It remains unclear as to whether David Humphreys’ ban on the provinces signing non-Irish-qualified props will extend to a scenario in which Munster require a medical joker.
But a player from within the Irish system may better suit Munster anyway given the prospective new signing’s role as a lineout lifter. Munster’s lineout runs very similarly to that of Ireland and, by extension, Emerging Ireland, who recently spent a fortnight under Paul O’Connell’s tutelage in South Africa.
Munster’s version of the system, however, has dramatically failed in the province’s last two games.
Against the Stormers in particular, Munster won just eight of their own 14 put-ins for a rate of 57%, blowing several attacking opportunities and gifting chances to their hosts in Cape Town.
Their 79% success rate for the season is the lowest in the URC so far this term, and head coach Rowntree admitted that there has been a mental element to his side’s shortcomings in the lineout as well as technical issues.
“Everyone and anyone within this group who’s involved with the line out would say that [with] the lineout, there’s a lot of moving parts,” Rowntree said. “It’s not just one thing or one person.
“Y’know, there’s a lot going on. I’m not gonna throw anyone under the bus here. There’s a lot of little things that we’ve gotta do better.
And y’know what? When you’re in against teams — particularly the last two games — with good lineout defences and a couple of things don’t go your way, you get a bit panicky. And that’s the guy calling the lineout, and that’s the guy throwing the ball in.
“Y’know, it all becomes quite tense and that can affect the flow of things.
“It’s being in the moment. It’s being clinical in the last inch of a lineout throw, the last inch of a lineout jump. As I said to you, when a couple of them have gone against you, you can start doubting yourself as a lineout thrower and a lineout caller.
“But there’s lots of things that we’ve been working on. But, no, we have to be better in that area. There’s no one shying away from that.”
