EOIN TOOLAN BELIEVES Munster have likely already lined up an out-half signing to replace Joey Carbery this summer, but the former Ireland performance analyst warns that if the southern province are forced to recruit a non-Irish-qualified 10, it would be the sign of a “broken system”.
Toolan insists that the IRFU should instead push for one of Leinster’s handful of young out-halves to move south in search of more regular gametime, and in an effort to boost Ireland’s depth chart in the position for the coming years.
Discussing Carbery’s impending departure from Munster with Gavan Casey on The 42′s Rugby Weekly Extra podcast, Toolan said: “I’d imagine the decision was made quite a few months back.
“Munster would have been acutely aware of contract scenarios once Ben Healy moved on to Scotland, and that Carbery was coming into the last year of his contract. They would have needed to make a decision on that pretty early if they were going to keep him.
“From a succession-planning perspective — which I’d imagine Ian Costello is heavily involved in as head of rugby operations — they would have been acutely aware that they would have needed to identify a replacement for Carbery should he move on.
“I saw [Mike] Prendergast saying that they haven’t talked about it — but they absolutely would have talked about this. Otherwise, it’s a pretty neglectful approach to your succession planning.
“No doubt something will be announced in the next couple of weeks in terms of who’s coming in for Joey Carbery. I would say they’ve already [signed another player]. There’s no way you could be in the position in January where you haven’t found a replacement for Joey Carbery.
“You’re going to need someone relatively established, whether it’s an overseas signing or someone domestically. Those conversations would have already happened — with the IRFU if it’s an internal signing, or with agents globally if it’s external.”
As things stand, Munster’s out-half options for next season are Jack Crowley, inexperienced academy product Tony Butler, and first-year academy player Dylan Hicks who represented Bantry’s Coláiste Pobail in the Munster Schools Senior Cup last year, while inside centre Rory Scannell can cover 10 at a push.
Toolan stressed that the transfer of one of Leinster’s “backlog” of out-halves — Ross Byrne, Harry Byrne, Sam Prendergast, Charlie Tector, or occasional 10 Ciarán Frawley — would make sense both for Graham Rowntree’s side and in a wider context for Irish rugby.
“For me, either the parting gift of David Nucifora or the explosive start to David Humphreys’ career as IRFU High Peformance director is trying to extract one of those out-halves from Leinster to Munster. It makes absolute logical sense.
If Ireland see Frawley as a 10, you can’t be in a position where Jack Crowley is your number-one out-half but the next best four 10s are all in the same province.
“For me, it would be a broken system if they were to bring in a non-Irish-qualified 10 into Munster — because one of those Leinster players could do a really good job down in Munster as well.
“Obviously, there’s a lot to it, it’s not a straightforward process, but for me, one of those needs to be extracted and get gametime at 10 if we’re going to try and grow the depth chart of 10s in Ireland.”
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