Graham Rowntree leaves a legacy but Munster's supporters deserve answers after shock departure

There is no BKT United Rugby Championship this weekend, but any feeling that this would be a quiet few days in Irish rugby was firmly ended at 10.30am yesterday morning.

Munster's first team weren’t training on Tuesday, having just returned from a gruelling trip to South Africa, and shortly before 10am they were summoned to an online call where they were informed that the province had parted company with head coach Graham Rowntree.

Within 30 minutes the news was confirmed publicly, as they announced Rowntree would leave with immediate effect "by mutual agreement". It’s just 13 months since he signed a contract extension until 2026.

As breaking news goes, it was a bombshell.

While Munster have had a poor start to the season, with just two wins from their opening six games, their form didn't point to such a drastic change so early in the campaign.

In the Englishman’s two previous seasons in charge, slow starts were the norm. Having rallied to win the URC in 2023 and finishing top of the regular season table in 2024, it appeared that there was enough credit in the bank for Rowntree and his coaching team to weather the storm.

The former Leicester Tigers prop was immensely popular with Munster supporters, and not just for delivering their first silverware since 2011 when they won the URC in May 2023 (below).

Having joined as forwards coach just after the 2019 Rugby World Cup, his appointment as Johann van Graan’s replacement in 2022 was well-received, even as he stepped into his first head coaching role, supported by a backroom team of former Munster players Mike Prendergast, Denis Leamy and Andi Kyriacou.

As a personality, there was always a sense that he "got" what it meant to be a part of Munster, and that was evident from the