The 2016/17 season is upon us and we have three new captains.
Two of them are sharing the duties, up at Ulster, while Isa Nacewa is no stranger to the captain’s duties but has the role on a permanent basis this time out, in what could be his final year at Leinster.
We caught up with each team and found out how their captains were chosen.
Leinster – Isa Nacewa
Leinster usually get their senior players to gauge the opinions from the wider squad about who the captain should be. There have been votes held in the past, as there was this time, but there was no need – Nacewa was the clear choice.
“It’s a huge honour for me and my family,” he told us. “I love the challenge of the job and also proud to do it at the same time.
“It was quite nice to get the vote and it really was quite humbling too.”
Munster – Peter O’Mahony (vice captains Billy Holland and CJ Stander)
Stander stood in for O’Mahony last season after a World Cup campaign and a horrendous knee injury kept their captain out of the red jersey. O’Mahony is nearing full fitness again and Rassie Erasmus [Munster director of rugby] says it was an easy decision to ask him to take on the captaincy again. The decision was not unilateral, he adds, and came after consulting with senior players.
“It wasn’t me and Axel [Anthony Foley] and the other coaches saying, ‘Peter, you are the captain’. It was a collective call from the group. We had a lot of input. The senior players in the group supported him 100% and that made it an easy choice.”
Ulster – Andrew Trimble & Rob Herring
With last season’s leader Rory Best away for much of the season with Ireland, Ulster are hedging their bets with two more Irish internationals sharing the captaincy duties. Ulster director of rugby Les Kiss comments:
“It was a decision that was not taken lightly. We had a good talk about it at the end of the season. Rory is Ulster through and through. He knows how important he is to the place without being captain.
“He wasn’t driven by having that ‘C’ next to his name. He was driven by what the place is going to look like in the next three or four years, when he is not around, and what he could do to help build another leadership structure.”
Kiss picked ‘two exceptionally good men’ in winger Andrew Trimble and hooker Rob Herring. “They have huge respect within the group,” he adds before mentioning fellow senior players Tommy Bowe, Iain Henderson, Ruan Pienaar, Charles Piutau and Paddy Jackson as important figures in shaping the team’s fortunes.
Connacht – John Muldoon
Absolutely no change here. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
John Muldoon came into last season on the final year of his contract. He had the season of his life and led the westerners to a quite remarkable PRO12 title victory. Once Muldoon committed to another season – he is taking each one as they come – the captaincy decision was decided on the spot.
“He is a great example of an old dog that is willing to learn new tricks,” says Connacht coach Pat Lam. “We all know the sort of character he is but where he gets his respect is his humility and his desire to become a better person – a better rugby player – and that’s why he is such a good captain.”
The potential for 33 games await, with two trophies to aim for. It will be interesting to see where each captain’s journey takes them.
The new GAA Hour football podcast is here. Listen to Colm Parkinson, Senan Connell, and Barry Cahill dissect a classic between Dublin and Kerry. Subscribe here on iTunes.
