Denis Leamy

There was probably at times, um, you know, a little bit of a bland type game plan Um, but yeah, you, you sense that they were kind of improving and on the right track.

And then Graeme Rowntree takes over and, and Mike Prendergast, Denis Leamy came in.

Um, there's a change around the coaching group again, and, you know, they win the URC in 2023, and, and it was one of those ...

It was an outstanding moment.

You're happy with the stable that you have and you're bringing guys through from the academy.

And I think there's more than enough talent there to suggest that these guys could be the likes of a Quinney, a Wally, a Leamy, a Foley.

You know, they're...

They're just kind of bubbling under the surface at the minute where you'd love them to step up and just completely dominate the game and then do that week in, week out.

I guess the same is true of the reverse as well to some degree Mike where defensively Munster have been sort of inconsistent in ways.

We know that in a particular game like you think of La Rochelle two seasons ago away from home like they're scrambled and just the physical effort that they produced that day was absolutely extraordinary and then you see them on the road in plenty of games last season high profile games you think of Bath and Exeter etc where the defence was just sort of torn to shreds and Certainly at times, you probably could have questioned the application, not only sort of systems and strategy, but just application, I think.

And Dennis Leamy, he's proven himself as a very good defence coach, and yet he finds himself under scrutiny semi-regularly, you would say, after a big defeat, the kind of which they suffered plenty of times last season.

I mean, is it as simple as...

I have loads of regrets about my career and that's one of them because I don't ever think I really put my two feet into it.

And the other side of it is... like I'm not looking for sympathy here I'm not looking for any the quality of the players we had in the back row as well I was dreaming to think that I could get ahead of like some of the names Sean O'Brien Jamie Heslip and even at the start Quinny and Wally and all these lads Leamy like Stephen Ferris there was just a phenomenal bunch of back rows and like I look back at some ways and go laughing going to even be in a squad with some of those lads was an achievement but you always have regrets so like I probably got what I deserved in a lot of ways I probably was comfortable in Connacht and that was that that sits with me a little bit and that gnawed away at me towards as I left as Declan Kidney moved out and Joe Smith moved in I knew I wouldn't I was gone at that point from the Ireland reckoning and towards the end of my career I was like oh I didn't do that right I never really threw myself into it so I have regrets but I'm the last cap thing doesn't it doesn't really sit with me um it doesn't bother me either that much but I think knowing knowing that before I retired helped me push on for the last couple of years as well just to like kind of push the Irish thing out of the way and just go right um because people said to me um towards the end of my career I don't know why uh why are you playing like this now? Why didn't you show some of that when you were early career? And I was like, well, Pat asked us to do different things that no other coach had asked us to do.

And I was like, the skills and the tools were in the kit, but no one asked us to do this.

So it was a bit different, but yeah.

maybe edit all that

so it's great insight how come you knew Joe Schmidt wasn't going to pick you I was

at that point I was right yeah I was gone and there was there was a new generation of back rows coming through again and like you're not sure if I have the timeline right here but there was a new like my legs on myself Dennis Leamy were starting to go the opposite way and um I can't even think off the top of my head.

Chris Henry had come in.

Uh, Pa- Payne isn't coming in to do the defense.

Uh, that's Denis Leamy's remit.

I'm sure Payne could offer his expertise if it was needed, but he's coming in as joint attack coach, uh, for want of a better term, Ian.

So, like, I don't know if you've worked in systems like that where there's been two attack coaches.