While timing might be shining on the face of Sam Prendergast, there will be questions in the coming weeks around the timing of Graham Rowntree’s exit from Munster, who won the URC a little more than 18 months ago. While the recent run of losses was not up to Munster’s standard, the context around them feels relevant.
At one point I spotted a social media post showing a starting 15 of injured players. Depth in certain positions was thin at best. But despite losing three matches for the first time in nine years, Munster seemed to show enough to to suggest they were pointing in the right direction. For large parts of the match against Leinster, Munster were the better team, with certain combinations looking really exciting.
To quote Nigel Owens, “gentlemen, this is not soccer”. Managers coming and going midseason is commonplace in football, but it is not in rugby. Usually coaches acknowledge the end of their tenure some point midseason, with a hindsight assessment of where it went well and not so well.
To part ways with a coach after six games is a massive gamble. The structures and planning put in place over the preseason are put in jeopardy and it is incredibly hard to put new aspects of play in place midseason. There is without doubt going to be ripple effects from this decision. The optimist would say there is a mini window for Ian Costello to work with the players, but this will carry legacy issues deep into the season.
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If there was an issue that carried over from last season, the opportunity to clear the decks was surely over the summer. Leinster did this with Matt O’Connor, unreserved in their opinion he was the wrong guy for the job. However, it always felt that Rowntree was the right guy at the right time. Something has changed and it will come out in the wash eventually.
As I said, timing is everything. Years ago on a bright January morning walking out to training in Old Belvedere, Leinster coach Gary Ella tapped me on my shoulder and asked if I fancied a trot at 13 as Brian O’Driscoll had suffered a serious hamstring injury.
Just two training sessions before my debut match at outside centre, Ella went along the lines of “enjoy yourself and have a go”. The intricacies of the positional switch were not examined, but I was eager to have a go.
Unlike in Australia, in northern hemisphere rugby, there was and largely still is a view that players should become proficient at one position and I was trying to master a new position in the centre having just turned 24-years-old.
There were some aspects that transferred from having played in the back three that made the move to centre a little smoother. One was the timing on to a pass.
In the back three, it is about timing your peak acceleration in catching the ball, which relies heavily on the person passing the ball. Any delay or inaccuracy with the delivery probably leads to a break in stride and the opportunity disappears as the defender comes back into play.
At the time Christian Warner was playing 10 for Leinster and I had the benefit of his experience. But I also had one of the best passers and decision makers pulling the strings.
“Warns” played what was in front of him and looked for others to react around him, which suited me. It meant that I could time my runs easily and play in the moment.
As I became more established at inside centre, there were other technical aspects I needed to add. But one fundamental piece never changed and that was timing of a run or how I changed angle on to a pass.
A challenge was maintaining the outcome when the personnel changed. Brian O’Meara, Peter Stringer, Warns, Ronan O’Gara, Felipe Contepomi, Johnny Sexton and Johnny Wilkinson were different. But you had to try to find a way to hit the ball at the right time.
Watching Leinster outhalf Sam Prendergast over the weekend, I found myself putting my head into different scenarios.
A lot has been said about his potential, although I haven’t seen enough of him to form any view. But the Emerging Ireland tour of South Africa and injury to Ciarán Frawley have aligned to give him a decent run of consecutive games.
There is a lot the young flyhalf needs to develop and also a lot to like about how he plays. When he engages the defensive line, he has an ability to hold on to the ball until it looks like the moment is gone, then releases the pass.
This has a very powerful ripple effect, as at least one if not two defenders are committed or engaged longer than they would like. It creates line breaks, and soft shoulders, and there were plenty of examples of that against the Lions.
Getting the timing right is fundamental to playing with somebody such as Prendergast, who reminds me of what my old coach Steve Aboud instilled in me from a young age – “later is better”.
The later you start your run, the more room for error. But too often you see players in the space before the passer is ready to release. A couple of times players overran Prendergast’s pass, but this will improve over time.
Not unlike the familiarity around players’ timing, the vision to convert line breaks into points is something that will also come the more Prendergast plays.
His ceiling is high, and while he may not be in the match day 23 against New Zealand next week, his upward curve looks set to continue in the November series. After all, timing is everything.
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