ON AN EVENING when there were fewer eye-catching Munster moments than head coach Graham Rowntree would have liked, the impact of 20-year-old back row Seán Edogbo in Cork last Friday was a highlight.
The sheer size of the Cobh Pirates product was the first thing that fans watching Munster’s pre-season defeat to Gloucester would have noted. They knew him from the Ireland U20s but Edogbo seems to have added more mass over the summer.
Despite only just having joined Year 1 of the Munster academy programme, Edogbo already looks bigger than older pros. He is certainly cut from the same cloth as his older brother, second row Edwin, who Munster hope to have back from an Achilles tendon injury in November.
The younger Edogbo quickly set about making an impression in contact last weekend, while also delivering some fine lineout work and generally putting his hand up for further opportunities when Munster’s BKT URC campaign kicks off in two weekends against Connacht.
Edogbo impressed for the Ireland U20s this year, featuring in the Six Nations and U20 World Championship. Rowntree has been delighted with how Edogbo has kicked on with Munster’s senior side during pre-season.
“Athleticism,” said Rowntree when asked what has stood out. “He has come back bigger. I think everyone had a double take of him, he certainly came back bigger. That’s testament to the work he’s been doing in the gym with our staff. He gives us something different – power, pace, athleticism, detail around his handling game, little tip passes and sweep passes that he’ll get better at.
“He’s got a great lineout jump shape and he’s easy to coach as is his brother, Edwin. We’ll hopefully get the two of them on the field soon enough. We’re not expecting Edwin back until November at this stage but I’m delighted with Seán.
“He’s a bolt from the blue, he’s come from nowhere, played a bit with the Ireland 20s in the last six months. He was another standout for us on Friday night, his performance.”
Rowntree said he has great confidence that Munster’s production line will continue to deliver exciting prospects like Edogbo and his fellow promising back rows Brian Gleeson, Ruadhán Quinn, and others who have earned senior debuts in recent times.
The Munster boss believes Munster’s pipeline is now a “point of difference” for the province, citing new Year 1 academy centre Gene O’Leary Kareem as another example of the good work being led by Munster’s head of rugby operations, Ian Costello.
Of course, Rowntree’s job is to make sure the senior Munster team wins. In that sense, having players like Edwin Edogbo back from injury as soon as possible will help.
While Edogbo has another few months of rehabilitation left, Springboks lock Jean Kleyn should be back very soon, a major boost given his importance to Munster and the worries over his eye injury.
“He had an eye injury, he has had a procedure, and he’s still got some return to contact to tick off, he’s still got to complete a full week’s training before he returns for us but that looks like it will all be on schedule for URC week one,” said Rowntree of Kleyn.
The Munster boss also confirmed that Dave Kilcoyne is recovering well from an ankle injury and should be back “imminently.”
Rowntree will confirm the new permanent Munster captain next week ahead of the URC opener against Connacht, with Tadhg Beirne having performed the role most often after Peter O’Mahony stepped down from last November.
“Most clubs have a leadership group and I’ve got eight guys in mind,” said Rowntree. “I’d like to think I can call on any of them to captain the team and rely on the support of each other.
“Tadhg did a good job, very good. This will be the first time a Munster coach has picked a captain for 10 years, there’s no playbook here. I wasn’t going to be rushed. I certainly wanted to see a few other guys to see how they performed and some of them were injured for big pockets of last season.
“So, I’ve had to take my time. I’m close to announcing who that will be and that will be announced the week of the first URC game. I took my time on purpose. In short, I’ve a very healthy leadership group and they’ll help the candidate that’s named.”
Rowntree offered praise of O’Mahony’s ongoing influence on the squad, citing his “warmth” towards young players and calling the 34-year-old back row a “warrior.”
Three highly experienced figures, Simon Zebo, Keith Earls and Andrew Conway, have left Munster over the past year, all of them retiring from professional rugby, but Rowntree has been happy with the emergence of younger leaders.
“I’m looking at the list of our leaders now, it’s on the wall, and I’ve got some young bucks in there who are very much respected by the senior men for their actions, how they play the game – the likes of Alex Kendellen, Craig Casey.
“Craig Casey is everything good about what a rugby player should be with his dilligence and professionalism.
“You’ve got a strong enough group there, it just evolves and renews itself naturally.”
Rowntree is happy with this summer’s recruits from outside Munster – Billy Burns, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Tom Farrell, and Thaakir Abrahams – and while he seemingly believes good things are ahead, he’s not keen to place great expectations on his players, not publicly at least.
He said they dealt with last season’s disappointing home URC semi-final loss to Glasgow by reviewing it for the key lessons and then going to the pub on their end-of-season social.
Asked what a good season for Munster would look like in 2024/25, he laughs.
“You sound like one of my board members! Win the next game. We’re still advancing. We’re still not as good as we can be consistently, this group of players. We changed the group of coaches a couple of years ago, changed how we play the game and we’re not there yet. It’s my job to keep pushing that, keep getting us better.
“I’m not going to speculate as to what a good season looks like for us. I’d like to go a week further than last season, that would be a good start. As a boring former English prop would say, we’ll take it week by week. That’s some headline for you!”
