Latest news with #NiallO'Donovan
The Irish Sun
01-07-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Munster Rugby continue major shake-up as another Kiwi joins Clayton McMillan in being appointed to key role
MUNSTER Rugby have announced the appointment of New Zealander Martyn Vercoe as the province's new Team Manager ahead of the 2025/26 season. He will join the province next month subject to being granted a valid work permit. Advertisement He will be taking over from Niall O'Donovan having previously worked with Vercoe is the current Team Manager and Head of Teams at Super Rugby side Gallagher Chiefs and Team Manager for the All Blacks XV. He has been an experienced team manager in a number of environments over the past 12 years. The New Zealander was manager of the Kiwi Under-20s side from 2016 to 2021, winning the Under-20s World Cup in 2017 with a 64-17 win against England in the final. Advertisement Read more on Irish Sport His U-20s team consisted of now senior internationals such as Tupou Vaa'i, Caleb Clarke and Will Jordan. He also managed New Zealand National Provincial Championship side Tasman Makos from 2013 to 2020, taking them to three finals in his first five years before winning back to back titles in his last two seasons with the club. Vercoe was also a Personal Development Manager and Commercial Manager at Tasman Rugby, and Head of Faculty at Marlborough Boys' College in New Zealand prior to his management career. He will have big boots to fill as he steps into the void left by the beloved Niall O'Donovan who has been working with the province for 28 years. Advertisement Most read in Rugby Union Along with his 28 years as a coach and manager with Munster and Irish Rugby, he also represented the province as a player in the 1980s. O'Donovan joined Munster Rugby in 1997 as an assistant coach and reached two European Cup finals during his tenure in 2000 and 2002. 'Jack Crowley he's coming for you' jokes Peter O'Mahony's wife Jess as son practices his rugby skills He left the province to become Ireland's forward's coach in 2002 but returned in 2010 as Munster A Team Manager. The Shannon man coached the likes of Peter O'Mahony, Dave Kilcoyne, John Ryan and Stephen Archer in his time with the Munster A, winning the British and Irish Cup in 2012. Advertisement Following the cup win, 'Niallo' moved into the team manager role he is now leaving. He has overseen defining moments such as the move to a single training base in the High Performance Centre in UL in 2016, and enjoying the province's first trophy success in 12 years when winning the URC title in 2023. 1 The 68-year-old had an impressive cricket career before moving into rugby Credit:
Irish Times
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Owen Doyle: Chaotic cock-up cost Munster and it reflects badly on a number of people
Reckoning day is coming, it will be here soon enough. Munster currently occupy seventh place in the URC table, worryingly close to missing the playoffs, and next season's European Champions Cup . My money is on them to get there, they are Munster after all, but it's far from guaranteed. Nobody will ever know if the chaotic cock-up – which saw them play with 14 men for about 13 minutes – contributed to their narrow demise at the hands of Jake White's Bulls. Every match official must know, and understand, the laws inside out. However, it needed a lengthy conversation with Munster team manager, the excellent, soon to retire, Niall O'Donovan, before the error was realised and corrected. Oli Jager had left the field for a failed HIA, and, when replacement Stephen Archer was injured, referee Andrea Piardi ordered uncontested scrums. Next, the valuable Alex Kendellen was asked to leave the pitch. A team must reduce by one player when frontrow injuries cause uncontested scrums. It ensures that injuries are not faked. A HIA, blood injury or a foul play injury, are very sensible exceptions. It's really not too tricky to get it right. This has happened previously, very notably when Ireland played Italy a couple of seasons ago, when the visitors were correctly reduced to 13. If that didn't switch on permanent flashing lights in every union's referee department, then someone has been dozing off at the wheel. READ MORE It reflects badly on a number of people, and cannot be swept under the carpet. If Munster were to drop out of contention, the consequences would be awful; and we would all be left wondering what might have been. The buck must come to a Harry Truman-like stop. Iain Henderson of Ireland wins a lineout. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty The scrum is a busted flush, we all know that's a truism. What's happening to the lineout is the new question? We got one answer when Munster's Mark Donnelly threw, completely crooked, directly to a team-mate standing at 'two'. Amazingly, it was also perfectly legal, under World Rugby's nonsensical law trial. And it was not the only throw which went directly to the second man in recent weeks. For a crooked throw, the trial requires the opposition to contest possession, otherwise it's play on. The rationale is to reduce stoppages in play. However, with a crooked throw to the man at 'two', the opposition have no time to react, no time to put up the necessary jumper to trigger the referee's whistle. Is there any other sport, where a fundamental infringement requires a useless, artificial action by the opposition, before it is sanctioned? Of course, it might get rid of a couple of annoying scrums which, the cynic in me might suggest, is part of the reason why some enthusiasm exists for this particular project. Such a futile jump depends on the referee whistling a crooked throw, and trusting that he will do so. Some years ago, against Wales, Joe Schmidt had planned to attack their lineout. With Devin Toner in situ, it wasn't a bad idea at all. However, Wales negated the plan by throwing down their own side all afternoon. It was never sanctioned. Understandably, the Irish coach was not particularly pleased, quietly irate in fact. Like the scrum, the lineout is supposed to be a contest for possession, but this trial appears to be heading in the opposite direction. The coaches have yet to get a full grip on the possibilities, as time goes by they will find plenty more ways to be 'innovative'. Maro Itoje of England wins the ball in the lineout against Oscar Jegou of France. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Furthermore, a ball thrown to the front man in the lineout must be straight. It is an exception to the trial, as is a ball thrown past the 15-metre line. Recently, we have seen plenty of balls been thrown directly, actually passed, to the front man without hearing a whistle, including a blatant French throw against England in the Six Nations. It should be an easy fix, but it happens so fast that the referee and his assistants have been caught unawares. Rugby is a sport which has, and needs, structure in certain defined areas. Without that structure, a different game is created. The contests for possession are key, they are characteristics of rugby union which we risk losing at our peril. Rather than producing a hybrid game, which is where we seem to be heading, the different features and characteristics of union should be extolled and promoted. That would mean, of course, detinkering with the lineout by calling a halt to this trial, and taking a keen look at the scrum. The way to encourage teams to contest lineout possession is simple. Just make sure a few basic things happen − clearly establish the metre-channel between the two teams; and that the thrower stands correctly on the mark, not opposite his own front man. Finally, make sure the ball travels within the metre channel, along the inside shoulders of the lineout players. It will mean a serious wake-up call for all match officials, who have become very casual in this area. They might also insist that the thrower is not in the field of play, which too often is the case. The contest at the scrum has long since disappeared over the horizon, the lineout should not be allowed to follow it. A last word on this for now is from World Rugby. Their very own Charter of the Game states: 'The contest for possession of the ball is one of rugby's key features. These contests occur throughout the game and in a number of different forms: in contact in open play, when play is restarted at scrums, lineouts, kick-offs, and restart kicks.' Quod est demonstrandum. I hope.
