Munster Rugby Special Report: Centres of Excellence could be the making of the Reds’ season

Graham Rowntree’s none-to-subtle reshaping of Munster continues with reputations counting for little.

Craig Casey may be rested for the Stormers game on the back of an unspecified niggle but Conor Murray can’t but be aware he has been slightly headed by his rival in the Munster/Ireland/Lions dogfight.

The coach’s frustration with the back-row is evident too, Munster rugby functions off back-row talent and there was reminder again last week that Leinster are the benchmark. Aside from Peter O’Mahony, his players can’t get next nor near the Ireland team.

READ MORE: Donncha O’Callaghan is just ‘outside noise’ for Munster: ‘We only listen to people inside the building’

But while he may have been watching no6, no7 and no8 with dismay last week there was one area where Rowntree looks to have reshuffled and cracked the code, the no12/13 combination is a centre of excellence.

Alex Nankivell and Tom Farrell didn’t just boss Leinster’s riches at Croke Park, they are the best midfield partnership in the URC, maybe in Europe, at the minute.

Moreover, were Nankivell Ireland-qualified and given his and Farrell’s close proximity to incumbent international out-half Jack Crowley, they would have comprised the best ‘Ireland’ combination for the coming game with the All Blacks.

Crowley will, of course, start against New Zealand but because Nankivell is a former All Black – and therefore ineligible – Tom Farrell won’t be even considered by Andy Farrell, a tough break on the new signing.

Certainly Nankivell’s breakthrough in his second season begs the question where was he last year, what was he doing, why was his win-loss ratio so poor? The answer appears to be that he had an unsatisfactory partnership with the now departed Antoine Frisch.

This year the New Zealander’s form is such that it is lifting all boats, says Mike Prendergast, specifically Crowley on his inside and Farrell on his outside.

“Nanks is a great player and quite in demand two years ago which doesn’t surprise me,” says Prenderast. “He’s got great power in his contact work but his ability to make players look good around him is incredibly exciting.

“He’s incredibly strong and guys like Jack, guys like Tony Butler and Billy Burns inside him at no10 and everyone that’s around him, he has a brilliant way of connecting people together.

“And again, just knowing from coaching abroad you come across different individuals with different rugby philosophies from different countries. He came through the New Zealand system and there’s just some bits and pieces around his game, his vision, his technical stuff, his communication, his rugby smarts.

“He’s challenging with players, challenging with coaches, defensively, attack, whatever it may be, he’ll always ‘why?’ the question and that gives the rest of the players an answer as well, which is great, I like that.”

Prendergast is happy to give credit where credit is due too; Nankivell’s arrival at Munster is down to a name rarely bandied around, George Murray who is Lead Performance Analyst at the southern province.

“Here in Ireland where you’re only going to be bringing in two or three players from the outside, a lot of it is not just what they do on the pitch but off it as well in terms of what they can bring to the environment, what they can bring to the culture.

“George Murray who does our video analysis, he would be all over everything and on everyone. He would watch a lot of rugby, NPC games, Super Rugby and from a coaching standpoint he’d signed Nanks before I came in, personally I’m so thankful he was.

“You could go after a no12 sometimes who can give you huge gainline but he mightn’t have the ball-playing. Then you get a player who can do both , get you gainline and is a link player, a ball player, a good passer.

“You sit down and when you analyse and you’re recruiting, they are all the aspects you look out for but someone like George Murray would have it cut down for you in terms of the two or three, or four or five players in terms of the profile of what we’re looking for.”

It is that kind of faith that had Munster looking to join the dots to no13 ahead of 2024/25 and it was Connacht’s Tom Farrell whom they felt had the credentials – looks like they were right, Nankivell has been a jig-saw fit with the newcomer so far.

“Tom’s been hugely impressive, very durable as well,” continues Prendergast, “I saw from coaching against him that he has the ability of getting his nose through that gainline and he has very good offloading skills and it’s about our players feeding off him.

“You could see last weekend Tom’s footwork and his ability to get through those small spaces – Alex Nankivell got on the end of one and Craig Casey got on the end of another to put us into really good scoring positions.