Johann van Graan set to call on the Munster cavalry for Castres clash

Not surprisingly, for Munster to place their trust in eight home-grown academy players among a dozen debutants and perform so proudly in the red jerseys against Wasps last Sunday has proved hugely popular among their fan base. This is proven by the spike, for want of a better word, in interest for next Saturday's first European Champions Cup tie with fans permitted at Thomond Park in almost two years.

An 8pm kick-off against Castres, their most familiar of Euro foes, on the last Saturday before Christmas might normally have been a hard sell, but almost 20,000 tickets have now been sold for what will be the largest crowd to attend Thomond Park since December 2019. The St Stephen’s Day clash with Leinster has also sold-out.

One of the main criticisms of van Graan in his time at Munster has been the reluctance to promote young talent from within, but he did not accept that last Sunday was in any way an eye-opener for him as to the young talent within the province.

“I’ve always believed in the pathway and the players that we have. There are multiple examples of that. What was an eye-opener again was what happens if the hearts of men are aligned. It doesn’t matter if you’ve played 200 games or you make your debut. That’s what this club has been built on.

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“This club has had some phenomenal days in the past and it will have phenomenal days in the future. What it proves is that it doesn’t matter who puts on a jersey, it’s the man within the jersey. That was given to 23 individuals that pulled together as Munster men. Age didn’t matter.

“I don’t want to name drop any player because everybody played their part and there’s great examples of guys in the past few years that have done that. I’ve used the Josh Wycherely example against Clermont last year and there’s some brilliant examples this year.

“What it proves is that the Munster province have phenomenal people, a phenomenal community, and that’s what we build on and that’s what we’ll keep backing.”

In seeking to put last Sunday's performance into perspective, van Graan did list a clutch of recent graduates from their academy who have been in this season's team, and were ruled out of the Wasps game, namely Jack Crowley, Ben Healy, Craig Casey, Shane Daly, Josh Wycherley, Alex Kendellen, Jack O'Sullivan and Gavin Coombes.

While that’s particularly true of Daly, Coombes, Casey and Healy, Wycherley has started only once and played four times since that Clermont game, Crowley has one start in five games amounting to 126 minutes and Kendellen has had two outings off the bench.

Even so, reinstating some of the more experienced cavalry who will come back into the equation makes sense. In particular, the Munster tight five could do with some seasoned reinforcements in the likes of Niall Scannell, John Ryan or Stephen Archer, and Jean Kleyn.

“You’ve got to look at last weekend’s game in isolation,” said van Graan, not unreasonably. “It was a very unique experience. Every week in sport is different. Now, it’s a six-day turnaround, you’ve got staff coming back, you’ve got coaches coming back, you’ve got players coming back.”

Admitting that it will be difficult to scale such emotional heights again on Saturday, van Graan added: “We’ve got a mantra at the club; ‘we rise by lifting each other’. And we certainly did last Sunday.

New focus

“Now it’s a new focus and we’ve had some spicy games against Castres if you think about our last one we played there, I think we lost 13-12. The previous one at Thomond Park was a brilliant rugby game. This will be an Irish/French affair and it will be spicy. It’s two teams that know each other very well in Europe.”

Beyond confirming that he himself was back working in the HPC, van Graan could not reveal whether this applied to the other senior coaches, suggesting one or more are still isolating.

As to his own change of mind after signing a new two-year deal in July before putting his signature to a long-term contract with Bath from next season onwards, van Graan shed no light.

He also declined to say whether he was happy with the backing and support he received behind the scenes.

“Like I’ve said before, I’m not going into private club matters specifically over the media. I haven’t done it for the previous four years and I’m certainly not going to start now.

“The thing that I’m the most happy with is that I could tell my team yesterday that I’ll be leaving at the end of the season and that we’re all in this together for the next seven months.”

At face value, leaving for a winless club at the bottom of the Premiership wouldn’t seem to reflect well on Munster but he rejected any notion that the province was a stepping stone.

“Munster Rugby are one of the very proud clubs in world rugby. I’ve said it from day one, it’s not about me. I’ve joined a province and a club that I’m extremely proud of, and to have represented. I’m extremely proud to be the coach of Munster Rugby.

In a statement on the Bath website confirming his appointment van Graan did say: “I see huge potential in this club, the players, coaches and staff. I am coming to Bath to work with everyone, and to achieve great success with everyone at the club. This is an exciting next step for me as a coach, and for my family in moving to a proud club and a true rugby city.”