There was a broad smile across the face of Tadhg Beirne last Sunday. Sitting in the media room at the Irish team base in Portugal, the Irish secondrow glanced at someone off camera and the smile widened. You could speculate that Beirne was primed for a question about Graham Rowntree. Then bang, the first was about Rowntree and then the second and the third straight up Rowntree, Rowntree, Rowntree.
The smile was one of resignation, predictability of Rowntree emerging in the week Irish heads were deep into the All Blacks.
The departure of the Munster coach last week was not foreseen by the Munster players in Irish camp. Beirne, who was appointed this year’s Munster captain ahead of Peter O’Mahony and is, with O’Mahony, part of the leadership group within the Ireland team, was not consulted about the reasons why the decision was taken.
“Ultimately I think we all were [surprised] obviously,” said the Irish secondrow. “We were all informed about it. But the decision was from Munster and Ireland and we must move on from this point. Again, we can’t thank Graham enough for everything he has done for the club and it’s just time now for my focus on Ireland.
“Ah, look I’m disappointed for him. I think everything he’s done for Munster has been incredible. He brought the silverware to Munster in his first year and at a personal level I had a great relationship with Graham. I’ll be sad to see him go but I guess that’s part of sport too. These things do happen.”
It is not only Beirne but Munster colleagues Jack Crowley, Craig Casey, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash, O’Mahony – who arrived at the Irish camp following 40 minutes against an All Black XV last Saturday and training panellist Alex Kendellen – have all be affected.
The search for replacement for Rowntree has already begun with Ian Costello, installed as interim coach, returning to his job as head of rugby operations for the hiatus in the United Rugby Championship (URC). The other coaches, Mike Prendergast, Denis Leamy, Andi Kyriacou, George Murray and Mossie Lawler are still in situ leaving substantial continuity among the Munster coaching staff.
“Look we had a meeting early Tuesday to let us know with Ian Flanagan [Munster chief executive] and Ian Costello and that ... yeah there was a bit of surprise there amongst us, but we don’t really have time to dwell on these things,” said Beirne.
“We’ve a big game coming up this week and our focus just has to turn to that. I spoke with a few of the lads ... I checked in with a few of the lads in Munster to make sure everything was okay back in [Munster] camp. Obviously, they had Pete [O’Mahony] there as well and [Diarmuid] Barron and Jack O’Donoghue as well ... checked in with those boys to make sure everything was good, but we didn’t have too much time to dwell on it.”
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