Munster head coach Graham Rowntree has said he will not respond to accusations that his Munster side lack leadership.
The province’s appearance record holder, Donncha O’Callaghan, was scathing in his criticism of the players, following Sunday’s upset 23-17 loss to the Dragons in Newport.
O’Callaghan was particularly critical of what he called a ‘middle group’ in the squad, which he says needs to take on more responsibility, as he believes senior internationals have been burdened with too much charge.
“I find it frustrating that there is a middle group that does not meet the standards and today was a perfect example of that,” O’Callaghan said on RTÉ2, after Sunday’s defeat.
“You get your internationals back and you have to deal with them.
“I’m not looking for excuses, but the players will make mistakes in their first game back, you need a club player who will support them.
“You hate to make comparisons, but you look at Luke McGrath and Rhys Ruddock, those are the guys who drive it [at Leinster].”
“There comes a time, as a player, when you have to take responsibility for your role, and that’s it”
Donncha O’Callaghan says Munster underperformed yet again in loss to Dragons #RTESport #URC #DRAvMUN https://t.co/MgCHE8l3nt pic.twitter.com/Mm3FJpeqpP
— RTE Rugby (@RTErugby) September 25, 2022
Rowntree was asked about comments from Old Munster Lock this afternoon but would not be drawn to the criticism.
“I’m not going to comment on other people’s opinion of our game, but he is entitled to his opinion,” he said.
“I’ll give you my opinion on the game like I did on Sunday, what do you think?”
And the head coach claims the group have been “honest” with themselves in recent days, having started the campaign with successive defeats.
“I’m not going to hesitate. I certainly didn’t and the players didn’t. We solved it. We had a long trip back, a quick few hours home with the family on Monday and back on Tuesday to fix it, look at it, to be honest.
“It was a very honest review and we are moving forward.
“I have absolute confidence in the work we have done this summer. We have worked exceptionally hard, we have trained well.
“I’ve been around a bit and seen a lot of pre-season, a lot of training environments and I absolutely believe in what we’ve done and that’s going to come out in the game.
“As I keep saying, these are things we can control and we have to be better. So we addressed that this week.”
With 13 handling errors and several turnovers conceded to the breakdown, Rowntree admits the province slumped in several areas at Rodney Parade, but he remains confident that many of those errors can be eliminated in the short term.
After back-to-back matches in Wales, the province are at home for the first time this season against Zebre Parma in Cork.
In previous years, a visit from Zebre was seen as a gimmick, with Munster winning the teams’ previous 18 meetings.
But while the Italians have lost both games so far this season, they have been highly competitive, picking up two bonus points in each of their games against Leinster and the Sharks.
And with only Leinster, Ulster and Edinburgh scoring more tries than the Parma side in the opening rounds, Rowntree says they have to be on their toes.
“They scored good tries, didn’t they? They come in full of confidence; crikey, they play fast.
“We certainly can’t play too loosely against them, but it’s another chance for us to right our wrongs. We’ve had a disappointing start to the season, I’m not going to deprive myself of that.”
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow the BKT United Rugby Championship 2022/23 on RTÉ radio, TV, RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Watch live coverage of Ulster v Leinster (Friday 30 September) and Munster v Zebre Parma (Saturday 1 October) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
#Rowntree #wont #drawn #criticism #Munster
