RUGBY:Munster's success from the 1990s has been built on Shannon and co in sourcing and nurturing raw talent, writes LIAM TOLAND

ECKHART TOLLE currently tops the Watkins Spiritual Power list. So I’m reading his book the Power of Now. But, sitting in the University of Limerick this week as the Dalai Lama’s presence washed out over me, I couldn’t help drifting into the future.

As we know, Ireland have bounced back, Leinster ride high in the Heineken Cup, Munster dominate the Magners League, Ulster have been reborn and Connacht are no longer on the bottom. All is well.

Although the season is far from over, it is drawing the curtain on many of our warriors. Many have confirmed they will not be among us next year, some very untimely. Ian Dowling, for one, has been taken before his time. Dowling has long epitomised all things good in Munster rugby. A pretty good import that is. Munster bought well when he crossed over from Kilkenny RFC.

Traditionally, Munster have done well in the market: Rob Henderson, John Langford, Doug Howlett and many more have graced the famous red jersey. But it is not their arrival that has created the success that Munster have enjoyed, it is the arrival of country talent from the province that moved somewhat by accident into Thomond Park. Dowling, for one, wasn’t sourced by Munster. Neither were other legends such as John Hayes, Mick Galwey or, dare I suggest, the greatest Munster man of them all, Anthony Foley.

All four of these Munster heroes where first and foremost Shannon sourced, nurtured and harnessed. When I say harnessed, I mean they were exposed to the realities of rugby, the pecking order and its physicality at club level, and only then were they allowed to play for Munster.

Or more accurately put, only then did Munster want them. An almost finished product, if you will.

Many moons ago several of my talented team-mates from Old Crescent Under-20s were approached by none other than Colm Tucker to join the Shannon fold. Some went, others didn’t. It’s a pretty weighty phone call to receive, he being a Lion and all, not to mention the All Blacks’ destruction in 1978. The big clubs in Limerick and Cork were past masters at this “creation” of talent. No distance was far enough nor diamond rough enough. Many polishings were administrated in the back pitch of Thomond Park.

My point is simple: the success of Munster in the late 1990s to the present has been built on the methods of Shannon and co in sourcing and nurturing raw talent.

They were relentless. Having jettisoned the clubs to a large degree, what have the branches done to replace the clubs’ long, successful conveyer belt?

Professionalism, remember, is in place since 1995, 16 years ago. Have Munster replaced the relentless searching by Tucker and others? The greater Cork area, with a population of nearly 400,000, had but two schools (PBC and CBC) in the first round of the Munster Schools Cup in 1995; this year the same. Why so few?

Limerick, on the other hand, with a fraction of that population, has managed with a brand new school, Castletroy College, to win both the senior and junior cups.

Much comment has been forwarded on the success of the academies and their varying degree of advancement throughout the provinces. Clearly Leinster have stolen a march on their rivals, but no province is without threat.

Two players who have given untold brilliance to the provinces but never came through the academies highlight the point. Nathan Hines and Paul Warwick are almost irreplaceable. I know the graveyard is full of indispensable people and that every dog has his day, but these two are special and could take years to replace.

Hines, for one, has the unique ability to dog out a fixture and balance it with sublime hands. Check out his manhandling of Paul O’Connell 10 minutes and four seconds into the Thomond Park fixture.

How much life is in Leo Cullen remains to be seen, but they will take some replacing.

Leinster can rest on their enormous achievements or strike out for greater glory by not just simply replacing the quality players, such as Hines, who exit, but by enhancing them.

Sam Tuitupou is heading back to England where his style is most suited. He was a poor purchase, highlighted way back in September. Not because he’s a poor player, but because he’s not a Magners League or Heineken Cup player, not what Munster needed.

Clearly, paying €58 million for a star like Fernando Torres is lunacy, but carefully selected, class players such as Ulster’s BJ Botha is right on the money. He’s 31 with a bright future and will add huge value to Munster.

To keep the success in Tolle’s “Now”, the academy structures are crucial to create young blood. But the “wise old dog” transfer market the provinces will soon enter into will indicate the real ambition for continued immediate success. Now.

Finally, to the “best” import of them all and a former bullet-stopper of mine. He probably doesn’t remember this, but I roomed with him the night before his first Munster appearance.

At that stage I had raked up maybe three appearances and honestly believed I could impart some fatherly guidance to this Tipperary man.

We played the following day, November 9th, 1996, in Musgrave Park against Samoa, me in the number seven jersey, him in the number six. To say I was amazed by his sheer athleticism would be a serious understatement.

Boy, was he immediately effective, powerful and athletic. I was instantly taken by his speed for a relatively big man.

Unsurprisingly to most, he covered the ground in the six jersey far quicker and more efficiently than the number seven that day. He carried at will and flattened the blue jerseys of Samoa with impunity. In many ways a star was born.

How he won but 27 caps for his country can be blamed on injury and preferential selection, but rarely form.

He has proven for Clanwilliam, Shannon, Munster and Ireland that age, injury or preference could never quell his unique ability to mark any occasion with grace, grunt and guile in equal measure.

In a sentence: like the Lion he truly is, he “kills for pleasure, no known enemies”. Go easy Alan.

Or, as the Dalai Lama said in UL, “keep smiling”.