A deceased Irish rugby legend once said to yours truly in a tent at the Punchestown Festival “Rugby, my friend, is a game for thugs played by gentlemen, whereas soccer is a game for gentlemen played by roughens”.
Whether you agree with the actual nuts and bolts of his views or not is immaterial. At first glance, the first half of the assertion is fairly easily endorsed when you consider somebody of the stature – physically and otherwise – of Paul O’Connell saying ‘Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir’ to a referee like, say, Nigel Owens, literally not up to Paulie’s elbow.
However, you would have to wonder – and worry – is there some of the cultire of some other sports leaking into affairs of the oval ball. Perhaps not in terms of interactions with match officials, but, in other ways.
Case in point, the shock parting of the ways between Munster Rugby and Graham Rowntree announced on Tuesday morning. Things like that normally don’t happen in rugby. Especially not once the season had got under way.
Granted, losing three consecutive matches in any sport – not to mention one of the defeats being at the hands of the worst team in it – will leave any coach’s backside dangling over the bacon slicer.
That the blades have been ratcheted up and lowered in such summary fashion actually feels quite alien in the rugby environment. Though is it becoming more prevalent?
If you take the manner in which Dan McFarlane was defenestrated from his position with Ulster some time ago, it would be difficult not to think so. That said, harsh as it may sound, the managerial change was the right call before the season imploded altogether.
The surprising thing has been that the southern province actually pulled the pin out of the grenade and left Rowntree’s sweet spell with the southern province – which included a first trophy entering the cabinet at Thomond Park in nine years – ending with a sour taste in the mouth.
Now, though, comes the process of trying to replace the former England prop as expediently as possible whilst at the same time not rocking the boat any further than is already the case following a torrid start to the 2024/’25 season. Thus far, all the predictable names have been thrown into the ring – O’Connell, O’Gara, Felix Jones, Mike Prendergast.
Interestingly, though, while my source within the Red Army – who has pulled on the jersey at various levels – indicates early emanations appear to be favouring an O’Gara/Jones joint ticket, the bookies – who seem to have a better line on this things than Our Lord himself – have installed Paulie as 15/8 market leader at the time of typing.
Personally, while such being the case would of course be universally popular, in view of the fact that, temporarily at least, Andy Farrell is jumping ship to oversee the British & Irish Lions, it’d be hard to see the Leinst…I mean IRFU overlords sanctioning the removal of his second in command from the national team setup to answer the call on home ground.
Whatever the eventual outcome, one would just hope that there wouldn’t be too much faffing around involved in getting there or Munster’s season could be over before it has begun in earnest.
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