Signing new players is always a difficult process

There are all kinds of moving parts to consider before that announcement goes up on the Munster Rugby website.

First, let’s assume that you’ve spotted a hole in your squad that you need to fill with a NIQ player that is at least two years away from being filled by a high potential Irish developed player.

The provinces will always look inside the squad and academies to see if a position can be filled with players already on the books.

To boil it down, there’s no point trying to sign Eben Etzebeth for €1,000,000 over two years if you have a James Ryan (or close to a James Ryan ) developing in the academy who the high profile NIQ player will – just for the sake of budget management – keep out of the first team in high profile games.

If, on the other hand, you have a talented young player that could be a top guy but is around two/three years away from physically/emotionally maturing to the point where they can play at Pro14 level, signing an experienced international might be a good investment.

Once you’ve gone through that thought process, there are a few more hoops to go through. Can you get IRFU approval for the player?

The restrictions on the number of NIQ players per position across the four provinces aren’t hard and fast (necessarily) but the IRFU tend to not want a particular position to have too many non-Irish eligible players in it.

Who Would I Like To See Signed? That depends on what I think we need, and where we need it. Presently, that leaves room at lock, front row and midfield.

I’m mainly looking in South Africa, because you don’t have to pay the All Black/Wallaby premium while making sure you don’t run into any registration problems like Leinster did with Gibson-Park, Lowe and Fardy.

Well, with Sam Carter heading to Ulster I think a NIQ signing in the lock position for Munster would be unlikely. I think it was needed though, with Beirne and Kleyn likely to be in the Irish bubble during and after the World Cup. I’d be looking for a tighthead lock.

It’s a highly abrasive position, especially when you use that player as a big centre-field carrier. We have one specialist tighthead lock at the province – Jean Kleyn – and our reliance on him is a tricky situation.

Tighthead lock is a specific position and body shape all of its own. My own shorthand for the position is that if you can possibly play at #6 and/or you’re a little on the gangly side, you’re probably not the kind of tighthead lock that we’re looking for. For body shape, think Etzebeth, Ryan, Kleyn or similar.

We want size and we want a physical presence on the ball as well as the usual basics of the position, which are non-negotiable.

If I was signing one of those kinds of players, I’d be looking at someone like a Ruan Botha from the Sharks.

In the front row, we are well stocked at hooker and at loosehead, in the senior ranks we’ve got Dave Kilcoyne (30) who’s currently in the Ireland bubble and James Cronin (28).

Beneath those two, we have Jeremy Loughman (23), Liam O’Connor (23) and Brian Scott (25) on senior deals while we have James French (20) and Josh Wycherley (19) in the academy. There probably isn’t a lot of scope for recruitment here either but that depends on how the coaching team feel Loughman and O’Connor will play out.

At tighthead, we have two senior players in John Ryan (30) and Stephen Archer (31) with Ciaran Parker (23) and Keynan Knox (19), while Brian Scott can also play in this position.

I think this is the position that we could probably look to recruit in the front row. John Ryan is regularly away with Ireland, Stephen Archer is a solid option.

I haven’t been fully convinced by Parker as of yet and Keynan Knox (while very high potential) is around two years away from regularly starting at PRO14 level.

There’s space here for a ball carrying impact tighthead and I’d be looking at Johannes Jonker. He’s got a fantastic carry of a ball on him, is a good scrummager, a very physical rucker and has good basics at the lineout.

He’ll be 25 this year and could help bridge the gap between Ryan/Archer and Knox, while giving us real ball carrying impact in the tight five.

Again, at centre we have plenty of options at a good age profile but an extra ballcarrier in the middle of the field would take pressure off the likes of Dan Goggin and Rory Scannell.

I’d have a look at someone EW Viljoen from the Stormers. He’s 6’3″, a good carrier of the ball with decent offloading ability, solid pace in transition and very decent defensive work while playing primarily as an outside centre. He wouldn’t be wildly expensive and would come with little enough risk.

There aren’t any big names on my list here because I genuinely think you don’t need them. You need pieces of the puzzle to come in and fill space.

When you look for big names, you pay big name prices and take all the risks that come with them – possible injury to an older player, the bidding war you have to win to get them, etc.