Tonight’s Ulster and Leinster clash provides an insight into the challenge that awaits Munster’s next coach

IN THE Maori culture the word mana marks out the men from the boys. Words associated with mana are prestige, authority, control, power, influence, status, spiritual power, charisma – fundamentally mana is a supernatural force in a person, place or object.

For instance, Thomond Park has long since contained mana. It gives a person the authority to lead, organise and regulate communal expeditions and activities, to make decisions regarding social and political matters. The more prestigious the event, person or object, the more it is surrounded by mana. Clearly the man who takes over from Tony McGahan must have it but what if two of the candidates do?

Although of Samoan parentage but born in the Wellington region, Tana Umaga has mana flowing through his genes. New Zealanders recognise this was manifest in his playing career.

As Munster circle the wagons this week the challenge for the Munster Professional Game Board (MPGB), made up of Garrett Fitzgerald, John Hartery, Jim Riordan, John Kelly, Shaun Payne and McGahan is to separate the wheat from the chaff. As a recent player, Kelly should be most useful in this department.

I’m not sure how many in Irish rugby can claim it, but Anthony Foley certainly has the mana factor. The question for the MPGB is how to separate the “mana from mana”, or more importantly the “mana from Tana”. Umaga’s presence in anybody’s office would be an intimidating one. A quick breeze through his CV would have you shaking. A 74-Test All Black career which culminated in his leading the All Blacks to an unparalleled string of achievements in 2005 – a 3-0 series victory over the Lions; the Tri-Nations title; retention of the Bledisloe Cup and New Zealand’s second-ever Grand Slam.

As familiarity can breed contempt, I wonder, for all Foley has achieved, will he be allowed to create the same stir in the interview room? He is after all but five months younger and 12 caps short of Umaga’s total.

Herein lies the challenge facing the MPGB. Was it necessary to haul in the big names to prove the worth of the committee?

In coaching terms, Umaga simply doesn’t figure on the New Zealand radar; they are far too preoccupied with the Auckland Blues coach Pat Lam and their second-from-bottom position on the Super Rugby table.

For them the question is who will replace Lam? For them the answer may lie in Rob Penney or indeed Leinster coach Joe Schmidt. Interestingly, Umaga doesn’t figure in Auckland Blues’ future.

So why has he been interviewed by Munster or indeed why not interview John Kirwan or Eddie O’Sullivan?

Assuming both Umaga and Foley command the same mana and assuming further they are both going for the same job – head coach, how then does the MPGB separate them?

There’s no doubt in my mind the presence and language employed by Umaga will be impressive but does it extend beyond the playing of the game, which is vastly different and in many cases at odds with the European version? Schmidt both played and coached in Europe before arriving into Leinster. Foley’s understanding of the nuances of the European game allied to massive ambition to succeed puts him ahead of Umaga. Hence it must be for the assistant’s role, that of backs coach, that Umaga has been interviewed and, if so, has Foley been consulted!

Most young coaches replicate the key characteristics and messages of their previous coaches. This method works beautifully until the environment changes and the “young” coach encounters something new or extremely challenging.

For next season’s Munster coach, with so many retirements, there will be plenty new and challenging experiences to test them. The key questions centre on the vision of the coach based on a true understanding of the task in hand, allied to the man management, not just of the players but the MPGB, where in most cases they are the hardest group to manage – and this in tough times.

For either Umaga or Penney tonight’s encounter between Ulster and Leinster provides an interesting keyhole into the challenge that awaits Munster over the coming seasons. The challenge for Leinster while Munster dominated the scene was to figure out the culture of winning. That 6-5 victory over Harlequins at The Stoop back in April 2009 went a long way towards copperfastening the Leinster culture. What makes Leinster very dangerous is typified by the recent retirement of Shane Horgan, possible Leinster’s most important player. His absence is hardly noticed. Take his ilk out of the Munster team and many would scratch their heads over who would replace him.

Add to this, Ulster have clearly discovered the ingredients of winning but still lag behind Leinster in top-end alternatives. They do parallel much of what Leinster have in place.

In the early Leinster days, players would conduct pre-season in St Andrew’s School, running on the pitch and lifting in the “Bell” container in the car-park and the physio was an inconvenient 40 minutes away. Now the players are all centrally located with state-of-the-art facilities. Ulster have developed, and continue to develop, a ground that will soon be the envy of Munster (centralisation).

Population density is clearly enormously beneficial to Leinster. Ulster, larger by 500,000 people than Munster, have their rugby centralised in Belfast, a city with a population of over 260,000 but drawn from a greater area of well over half a million (Cork 519,000), it doesn’t have the same constraints as the Cork-Limerick divide.

The logistics of Munster make no rational sense and the further away from the amateur era Munster travel the more pressure it’ll put on their success. Ulster have also the added benefit of a UK and Irish pot to delve into.

The Munster acquisitions over recent years have been modest. Ulster are growing stronger by the week and with Brian McLaughlin slipping into development along with Gary Longwell, the population, schools and youth structures are there to keep Ulster’s ambitions growing.

Why watch tonight? For one, Leinster’s 23-man squad is seriously impressive (with Dominic Ryan at seven worth a watch). But more importantly, the fact Ulster are diluted from their full strength will provide an insight into how they fare against a very strong Leinster, which will be very telling for Munster.

It’s also a big night for referee John Lacey, who is well worth a close viewing. Like the 30 players on the pitch he may not get everything right but observe the genuine feeling he has for the tempo/flow of the game and the communication with the players.

PS.As the MPGB are figuring out how to get the Tana from the mana you'd want a fair bit of it and much more to impress Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara next season.