Outgunned, out classed, out played, Munster fail to inspire as Leinster win with relative ease.

David Corkery

No consistency, no line-out, no defensive staying power, no authentic attack strategy, little or no guidance from the stand, a tenuous scrum and no on field leadership whatsoever.

This might sound like a very long list of things that Munster rugby need to discover before they can once again call themselves worthy contenders however, if the truth be known there is probably another half dozen facets that you could add to this list and most of those lie with the personal that sit behind desks and with those who implement the provinces short, medium and long term policy’s.

At this point I’m sick to my back teeth of listening to people saying that Munster rugby is in a transitional period and that they’ve just been unlucky with injuries and coaches.

For Christ sake, how many years does a side need to be in transition before people can comprehend that there is something far more dubious occurring other than a few injuries and a few poor coaching selections?

This 7-28 trashing now stands as Munsters biggest defeat to the old enemy in well over a decade and it’s the sixth time on the bounce that Leinster have come to Limerick and left leaving a trail of laughter after them as they headed back up the motorway.

To even try to comprehend that Leinster have now won fourteen out of the last sixteen encounters is just depressing and to make it even more miserable there is no sign of this statistic finding any kind of a level playing field in the near or distant future.

People might argue that it is Munster who have won the last trophy between the two sides, but if you had to bet your home on who would win the next European Cup, which colour would you choose, blue or red?

The tranquil or so called logical option would be for me to sit here and blame the players or current coaching ticket, but that would be like duplicating what transpires in the soccer premiership across the water when a side flops.

That’s taking the easy option and on this occasion, taking the easy option is not the answer.

Put it this way if Munster were a financial institution where shareholders had invested their monies, the main heads would have rolled a very long time ago and heads would continue to roll until stability and growth was established.

With a 100% conviction I can tell you that every single player and coach that represented Munster on Friday night gave everything they had to the cause. Some might argue that they could have done more, but trust me they really couldn’t.

Again, the truth needs to be told and there must be a realisation that no matter how hard this squad of players try, they will simply never be consistently good enough, with consistently being the key word here.

Yes’ we will always win the odd game here and there and we have a few top class players who can mix it with the best such as Jack Crowley, Calvin Nash, Tadgh Beirne as a player but not as a captain, John Hodnett, Craig Casey, Shane Daly, Tom Ahern, Alex Nankivell and Gavin Coombes when someone lights a fire under his arse, but after that the province is struggling.

It would be reprehensible of me not to mention Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Stephen Archer, Dave Kilcoyne, John Ryan and the Scannell brothers also as top class, but with all these players hitting the low to mid-thirties in terms of age, their contributions will soon be a thing of the past.

I can tell you now that there will be no quick fix to Munster’s tribulations because even if you employed the services of Johan “Rassie” Erasmus as your coach and Antoine Dupont as your scrum half and captain, it would make little or no difference to the provinces fortunes.

The only thing that can press the restart button in Munster now is a complete independent and transparent study of what is happening with the structures that go into making up the senior squad.

Everything from what is transpiring in the underage sections in the clubs, academies, universities and especially schools needs to be surveyed and transformed accordingly.

The funding structures that are implemented by the IRFU and the way the province can fund raise from external sources must be slackened to allow for historic debts to be paid off and for proper infrastructures to be established in every school and club around the province.

Without change and the proper implementation of fit for purpose foundations, Munster rugby will just continue to plod along winning the odd game here and there and those who only know little else apart from taking the easy option will continue to feed us with the same kind of crap for years to come.

As long as the national side continue to do well, the IRFU will continue to run their blue print strategies as they have done for the last fifteen to twenty years and Leinster will continue to dominate the provincial landscape.

This might be a hard read for some, but it’s as honest as I can express myself at this worrying time for Munster Rugby.

Happy new year to all, I think!