JJ Hanrahan will return to Munster on a two year deal after spells with Clermont Auvergne, Dragons and the past two seasons with Connacht. This will be his third spell with Munster after initialling leaving to move to Northampton Saints.
The Munster squad is now taking shape for the 25/26 season, Dan Kelly joins up from Leicester Tigers and the two men joining up from Leinster, Michael Milne and Lee Barron. There are also a number of guys stepping up from the academy to senior deals like Evan O Connell, Brian Gleeson and Kieran Ryan.
The news of Clayton Mc Millan’s arrival next season will help focus the squad for the rest of the current campaign. They face two away matches this month. They are away to Glasgow and Connacht after the 6 Nations ends.
I am sure Mr Mc Millan had a say in Hanrahan’s arrival for a third spell. He will compete alongside Jack Crowley, Dylan Hicks, Tony Butler and Billy Burns for a place in the match day 23 next year. I have seen early comment to suggest that this is step backward in terms of bringing Munster forward under the new coach.
Time will tell weather this move will benefit Munster but you do need a senior 10 in the squad to help develop the younger 10s within the group and to step in if your main 10 is away on national duty or injured.
JJ will settle in straight off the bat as he has been in the Munster set up previously and that is one big plus given the fact a new coach will also be trying to implement his own style on the playing group.
Munster will want to end the current season on a strong footing and will also want to address to poor performance on home soil last Friday night. They will have to wait another two weeks before the URC returns for the run in.
They also face La Rochelle in the last 16 of the Champions Cup early next month. La Rochelle have had a rough period losing a number of games and they will want to return to good solid form before the visit of Munster.
So while the Munster squad to play under incoming man Clayton Mc Millan is taking shape nicely, the current squad has a job of work to do starting away to Glasgow in two weeks time…..