Munster fans could be forgiven for kicking their cats this week after Jean Kleyn’s Instagram post on Wednesday.
The giant South African posted a picture of him lying in a hospital bed confirming his latest surgery with the observation that ‘2024 was one to forget’.
It most certainly was. This was the year when Munster made the seemingly logical decision to hold onto Kleyn ahead of his Springbok colleague RG Snyman.
After four years of wasted money and broken dreams with the perennially injured Snyman, the Munster hierarchy reckoned the dependable
Kleyn was the way to go with their one non-Irish qualified second row.
Since that call, Leinster swooped in to bring Snyman up the road where he has been fit as a fiddle and in the form of his life, while Kleyn has been dogged by injury, looking on as Munster’s forwards get pushed around without his considerable heft.
If Munster did not have bad luck, they would have no luck at all.
The province, searching for a new head coach and a clear path to the future, look lost at present – typified by the limpness of their defeat by Castres in the Champions Cup a week ago.
In these circumstances, it is not the worst idea to look back to what has worked in the past – and second row is a good place to start as the Munster engine room was the bedrock for their greatest sides of the professional era.
When Declan Kidney got the ball rolling in the late 1990s, he leaned heavily on the leadership and nous of Mick Galwey and his partnership with the unheralded but brilliant Australian John Langford.
It was a perfect combination, the equal of any in Europe on their day and laid down a standard for what was to follow.
What followed was the Thunderbolt and Lightning pairing of Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan. Avid students of Galwey and Langford, when the youngsters were trusted with the No 4 and 5 jerseys in the early 2000s, they took the game by storm – famously cowing the Leicester duo of Martin Johnson and Ben Kay in the 2003 European quarter-final, a few months before the English pair played a key role in World Cup glory.
O’Connell and O’Callaghan brought their partnership to the international stage also, with Ireland and the Lions, and staffed the Munster engine-room for well over 10 years, with quality back-up from the likes of Mick O’Driscoll and Donnacha Ryan.
But what was once an area of great strength for Munster has now become a place of concern. Tadhg Beirne is top quality but looks careworn and over-worked, with continuing uncertainty from selectors over whether he would be better housed at No6 to free him up more.
Kleyn is a solid 7 out of 10 operator but not in Snyman’s class, while Fineen Wycherley does not lack for attitude but is short on bulk and height. Edwin Edogbo and Evan O’Connell are both hugely promising but still extremely raw and Edogbo has been cursed with injury issues.
Tom Ahern
Which leaves Tom Ahern.
The Waterford man has been on our radar for a while now but, through a combination of injury, mishandling by former coach Johann van Graan and fluctuating form, Ahern’s career has not kicked on the way it should have.
This has become something of a theme with the province, with debate over whether the likes of Joey Carbery, Gavin Coombes and now Jack Crowley are being held back by the fact that the Munster environment is not as conducive to progress as others – notably Leinster’s.
There may well be merit to that contention but there is no doubt about Ahern’s ability to step up to the top level – this 24-year-old has all the raw materials to be an elite international forward.
He is 6ft8in, rapid, excels in the lineout and combines natural power with athleticism and ball-handing skills.
But he needs clarity and he needs a run of games to show what he is worth. Flitting between the second and back rows may tick the versatility box but it mitigates against Ahern excelling in a specific role.
That is why his selection in the second row for tonight’s URC assignment away to Ulster could be highly significant.
There is too much hype around the need for brutish power, a la Joe McCarthy, in this role.
First, Ahern is no stripling at over 18 stone and is more than capable of putting his weight about at close quarters. Furthermore, his mobility and offloading abilities carry huge clout in the modern game — as does as his penchant for doing damage on the touchlines, whether on the charge or as a target for crossfield kicks.
Put those qualities on show tonight, together with dominance out of touch, via a landmark performance in Ravenhill and the Ireland selectors will have to take notice.
Second row is becoming something of an issue. The Leinster pairing of McCarthy and James Ryan had a somewhat unconvincing November, particularly as part of a chaotic lineout performance, and Ahern has the opportunity to come up hard on the rails with the Six Nations now only a matter of weeks away.
Beirne will come back into the reckoning soon and the partnership of Beirne (who also needs clarity and looks more at home in the second row) and Ahern has real potential.
For a start, with those two in the second row and Peter O’Mahony at No6, the lineout is not going to be an issue, while all three are imbued with the dogged qualities that defined those great Munster sides of the past. Then, when Kleyn and Edogbo return to fitness to offer their services alongside Evan O’Connell and Wycherley, suddenly there looks to be real depth and gravitas in an area that has been way off what it once was for many years.
Tonight’s match may seem a little off Broadway but there is a lot at stake here, for Munster and for Ireland. A raucous Ravenhill is not the worst place to make a career statement.
