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Munster are lost - Andy Dunne

Munster's season finished with a whimper after they lost both their semi-finals in the Heineken C...



Munster's season finished with a whimper after they lost both their semi-finals in the Heineken Champions Cup and the Guinness PRO14 Championship recently.

The men from the south-west were outgunned by both Saracens and old rivals Leinster respectively as they ended another disappointing season trophyless.

Andy Dunne joined Monday Night Rugby on Off The Ball and he painted a fairly bleak picture as to where Johann van Graan's squad go next, telling Joe: "They are very much lost in terms of where to go, I would imagine right now.

"I saw a brief couple of seconds worth of the post-match [press conference] and the despondency in Peter O'Mahony and what he said. And almost the confusion, it's very difficult to answer 20 minutes after a game, but 'where do Munster go?'

"He said he'd be looking to his leadership group to provide some kind of impetus going into [the new season]. Johann Van Graan was saying 'September's a long way away' and you're going to have that early PRO14 part of the season going completely under the radar with the World Cup - so there's a soft entry into next season, for sure.

"The hope the likes of Peter O'Mahony has is that younger guys will come to the fore and establish themselves as leaders within the group. I suppose he wants that with a view to improving the group overall and the back-up squad improves and the options for key players - I think he's clutching at straws and hoping that come semi-final time next year, they have a deeper, stronger squad.

"For me, it's a stylistic issue in terms of how they play. It's an issue in how they've been coached.

"Ironically, I think the closest they got to a definitive style in the last seven or eight years was when Penny was the coach. I think he tried too much, too hard, too soon in an environment where arguably the players weren't suited to it, or ready for change. Now they're very much between styles."

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Champions Cup Leinster Munster Pro14 Rugby Thomond Park Van Graan