Bernard Jackman believes that Munster have made a serious misjudgement in allowing John Ryan to join New Zealand's Chiefs in January, while Donal Lenihan warned the move will come back to bite the Irish province.
Jackman and Lenihan were both speaking on the RTÉ Rugby Podcast and reacting to the news that the tighthead prop will leave Munster to play Super Rugby at the end of January, having only rejoined them in October.
Ryan signed a short-term contract with Munster when his contract at Wasps was cancelled following the Premiership side's financial crisis.
However with All Black Angus Ta'avao picking up a season-ending neck injury with the Chiefs, the New Zealand outfit moved swiftly to sign Ryan as his replacement.
RTÉ Rugby analyst Jackman claims that Ryan’s exit will put added pressure on Munster head coach Graham Rowntree and that the province will be left light in the scrum.
"From a Munster point of view, I’m gutted to see John Ryan go to the Chiefs," Jackman said.
"I think that’s putting a huge amount of pressure on Rowntree and while the scrum was good at the weekend, I think having him there at the start is a help, it settles everyone down. Particularly against a French side, if you can show solidity there early in the game, it will generally last the whole game.
"But I’d just be worried. [Roman] Salanoa came on and did really well and he’s a more explosive ball carrier than John Ryan but that’s going to put them under pressure.
"Maybe I was naive but I just took it as a given that they would find a way to keep him for the rest of the season.
"When it comes to the crunch later on and you go down to South Africa in the URC and you need one win or two, I think they’re a little bit light there."
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Lenihan meanwhile believes that Munster have left themselves in a difficult position because of poor planning and management and by offering Ryan such a short-term contract, they left themselves in a vulnerable position.
"The thing that annoys me in the business around John Ryan is that firstly he should never have been let go in the first place. That was at the end of last year and therefore you had issues with the budget and balancing the budget.
"If you don’t have a scrum in Europe, you’ve nothing and with the South African teams coming into the URC it has an effect there as well."
Chiefs head coach Clayton McMillan confirmed that Ryan’s performance for the Barbarians on the recent All Blacks XV Tour played a significant part in the Cheifs’ decision to sign him and for Lenihan, the decision to let their player take part in that game was another major error.
"With Wasps going in administration John Ryan became available overnight," Lenihan added. "In my mind Munster should have tied him up for the season there and then, they gave him a three-month contract so therefore that was only a half commitment.
"Because he had a three-month contract, and I don’t know this for certain but I would imagine, he had already agreed to play for the Barbarians in those games against the All Blacks XV, because he wanted to use that to put him in the shop window.
"It’s almost a case of you reap what you sow. Angus Ta'avao got injured for the Chiefs, John Ryan played with some New Zealand players with the Barbarians in two games and against the New Zealand XV in that game.
"So all of a sudden when the Chiefs need a tighthead prop, somebody came up, 'oh jeez, your man John Ryan who is available is really impressive’.
"Had Munster tied him up for the year, he wouldn’t have been available, had they not agreed to let him play for the Barbarians when he should have been playing down in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, then this wouldn’t have come up.
"Munster are the architects of their own downfall in this and I think this will come back to bite them in the a**e by the end of the season."
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