Rob Penney Era

The Rob Penney era has come to an end after a 16-15 loss to Glasgow , who have made it through to a first final after 3 appearances in the semi finals. After two years as Munster head coach Penney will leave empty handed. The Penney era has seen the introduction of a number of young players after the retirement of some of Munster‘s  key men over the past 10 years , losing O Gara and Howlett to retirement didn’t help in his second season. But with the introduction of Hanrahan , Conway , John Ryan and Dave Foley , it shows that the talent is in Munster if it is given the chance.

Munster adopted a more open expansive style throughout Penney’s time at the helm of Munster. This did not sit well with the Munster supporters who felt that they were going away from the style that has served them so well for so many years. That aggressive forward orientated game mixed with some flashes of brilliance from the backs. The biggest problem that Penney had in his two years was that Munster seemed to be stuck between the two, to play the open game or to play a far tighter game that would suffocate the life out of the opposition. Only on the odd occasion did this come together for them against Harlequins and Toulouse.

With Foley about to take over for two years, can we expect to see Munster return to a far more familiar style or will he try to do the same as Penney and marry the two styles. The other big question will be who will take on the backs coaching job to replace Simon Mannix who will leave for Pau at the end of the season. The early favourite was Eddie O Sullivan even though Munster denied he had been offered an interview. He has since been installed as the Head coach at Biarritz, what odds on Brian O Driscoll getting the backs coaching job there, watch this space!!

Ex Cork Con boss Brian Walsh has now been installed as favourite to take on the job, if that did happen they would be the only all Irish coaching team. Highlights of the Penney era would be the win at The Stoop over Harlequins, the win over Gloucester at Kingsholm and the win against Toulouse on Thomond Park.

These were the stand out moments of Rob Penney’s two years at Munster, also three semi-finals in two years is not to be sneezed at although they never broke through to make an elusive final with this group.

So after three season without a trophy , the pressure is on Mr Foley and his band of merry men to break that sequence and bring a trophy back to Munster for the first time since 2011. Over to you Axel!!

By

Cian Mc Gibney.

19-05-2014.