Gordon D’Arcy
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
There's an influx west when it had been south in other years.
And you look at Munster, the instability that's happening on the back, like that absolutely has to feed into what's happening on the field.
You would need an incredibly strong group of players to weather what's going on off the field.
I'm not sure any group of players would be able to keep going completely independent of what's happening off the field.
Such was the instability off the field that I think you could understand that back in that time for Leinster, why players were there going, well, I need to look after myself here.
And actually the best thing for my career is playing for Ireland, getting picked every week to play for Ireland because Leinster had proven themselves not capable of getting past quarterfinals.
Because when pressure came on, and this is what happens in what Cheka brought to Leinster, tiny digression, you can look like a really solid group.
But ultimately, until the pressure comes on, that's only when you see the cracks or you see people shouldering the kind of weight together.
And around that time, we would, when the pressure came on, cracks showed all over the place.
And it wasn't until we actually kind of addressed that and fixed that, that we would go on to do better things.
But it's very hard to put the team before yourself when you don't know what's happening with coaches.
You don't know what's happening with contracts, who your overseas players are, what you're doing, where you're going.
I think that's the point I was trying to make, the contrast between Munster and Connacht.
Connacht are incredibly settled, really, really well settled, new stadium, well supported, well funded, coach in place and attracting talent.
You look conversely now, Munster laying off players.
There's no guarantee who's going to be, what the coaching setup is going to be there next year.
Would you say they're a team that's attracting talent at the moment?
And that's a real sliding doors moment in Irish rugby between Connacht and Munster.
Yeah, same view as you.
It possibly is refed on the outcome, but you really shouldn't be in that position.