Munster appear keen to carry on the road of South African directors of rugby with a strong contingent of Irish coaches in the backroom staff.
Back on September 18, following reports from Australia, Munster’s outgoing director of rugby Rassie Erasmus spoke glowingly about Dave Wessels.
The 36-year-old, who previously worked under Erasmus at Stormers, was placed highly on a list of possible replacements almost as soon as Erasmus confirmed he would be off home to take up a role with the Springboks.
Erasmus called Wessels ‘one of the few good candidates’ before stating that all he offered the Munster kingmakers was his opinion. Following a season in which Munster reached the Guinness PRO12 final and the Champions Cup semi final, Erasmus’ opinion stands for an awful lot.
Former Munster head coach Alan Gaffney, who worked with Force last season as ‘attack specialist’, may also have had a say on matters. According to a well-placed source in Australia, Wessels is keen on the role and impressed in an interview with Munster that took place in Limerick.
Asked about the Munster situation on Tuesday, IRFU High Performance Director David Nucifora told reporters that the union and Munster are ‘getting close’. He commented:
“I’m hopeful we will have an answer to this sooner rather than later so we can engineer a really well-delivered handover between the two coaching groups. You don’t usually get that chance, this is a coordinated approach.
“We’ve spoken to a number of people over the last number of months. We are well advanced at the moment… At the moment we’re talking to one person, but we’ve spoken to multiple over a period of time. But at the moment we’re talking to one so that’s why I can say we are getting closer.”
Wessels has been identified as the man to carry on the fine work done by Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber at the southern province. It’s handy, too, that Wessel’s old club seem to be deep in a hole with no shovels to extricate themselves. Western Force had a 12-season run in Super Rugby but, along with Southern Kings and Cheetahs, were axed by the Australian Rugby Union earlier this year.
Wessels arrived in Australia, from South Africa, to work on the Bumbies defence when they were coached by 2007 World Cup winner Jake White. He did a fine job in getting that ship in order before joining Force the following year. He was appointed caretaker head coach for the tail-end of the 2016 season before getting a full run at it in 2017.
Force – with players such as Ben McCalman, Matt Hodgson and Dane Haylett-Petty in their squad – were second in the Australian conference but missed out on qualification for the knock-out stages. The Brumbies were the only Aussie side to reach the last eight before the Hurricanes took their scalp.
Wessels is set to retain the coaching services of many of the current Munster staff, including Jerry Flannery and Felix Jones, but there could be another familiar face joining him in Limerick, once the switch is confirmed. Former Leinster player Shaun Beirne [attack] and former Ulster assistant coach Joe Bakarat [forwards] both worked under Wessels this season.
