Ian Costello says Munster have a new forwards coach lined up for next season, but they're not yet in a position to confirm the identity of the incoming assistant.
With head coach Clayton McMillan arriving in the summer and Mike Prendergast and Denis Leamy remaining on the coaching ticket, a forwards coach is the final element of the backroom team to be appointed for next season.
Munster have been without a specialist forwards coach since the departures of both Graham Rowntree and Andi Kyriacou in October and November.
Ireland women’s forwards coach Alex Codling has been working part-time with Munster during that period, but has been concentrating more on his role with the national side since the start of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations last month.
Codling was back with Ireland last Saturday for their meeting with England in Cork, and watched a portion of Munster’s Champions Cup defeat to Bordeaux-Begles on the big screen at Virgin Media Park. In his absence, Munster’s lineout unravelled as they lost nine of their own throws for a return of just 57%,.
It’s believed Munster management have been keen to recruit Codling (below) full-time for next season, while Connacht scrum coach Cullie Tucker had also been linked, although a potential switch for Tucker now seems less likely.
The need for a full-time forwards specialist was only heightened by Saturday’s setpiece calamities, and Costello says plans are in place to safeguard it.
"We’ve all those plans in place, just not in a position to announce them just yet," Costello told RTÉ Sport, when asked if a new forwards coach would be joining the ticket.
"With Alex, we’re always aware that he had a secondment or a dual role. They’re in a critical period of the Six Nations, he’s been in and out and Tommy O’Donnell has done a really good job here, and for the weekend we were really disappointed with it [the lineout].
"When you see the work they’ve done this morning, really good honest review, they trained really well and hopefully we’ll correct that for Saturday."
Costello, who will assume the role of general manager next season, admitted his side’s lineout failures were the biggest reason behind Saturday's 47-29 Champions Cup quarter-final defeat to Bordeaux.
And he says they will be dealing with those regrets for some time.
"The tricky thing is we underperformed and that's the hardest to take. Regret is hard to live with and for the last 48 hours people have had to process a huge amount of disappointment.
"People here are really p****d off with that performance, because it means so much to us, and also because we know that right then on Saturday, we know we should have performed a lot better.
"Our turnover count was in the 20s, we lost nine lineouts. Just cut that in half and I think we’re competitive, toe-to-toe with them, I really do. That’s what the last 20 minutes of the game showed us, and the first five minutes where we missed a very easy opportunity.
"That’s not being falsely positive or trying to be fluffy around it; we’ve dealt with this openly, honestly, it’s not good enough."
With their Champions Cup campaign now over, their full focus is on the URC for the rest of the season.
The province sit fifth in the table heading into the final four games of the regular season, with a top eight finish getting them into the play-off and a top-seven finish needed to be absolutely certain of qualifying for the Champions Cup next season.
They can take a huge stride towards securing that with a win against the third-place Bulls at Thomond Park on Saturday (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), and Costello is confident he will see a response from his players at Thomond Park.
"We should have performed better, we didn't when it mattered, but we genuinely feel if we’d been more accurate around the lineout, more accurate around our handling, and we conceded two first-phase tries off scrums. Even just cut that in half, and we think we’re right there with Bordeaux.
"It’s hard to argue that now because that’s not what happened but it’s genuinely how we feel. The important part of that is we have absolute belief about where we’re going and the last month is evidence of that.
"We've put in some big performances and the same behind the scenes. That’s been the chat; own it, learn from it but we have to move on. If we lose at the weekend, if we don't beat the Bulls, we’re in a dogfight to get into the play-offs," he added.
Watch a URC double-header, Stormers v Connacht and Munster v Bulls, on Saturday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Watch Wales v Ireland in the Women's Six Nations on Sunday from 2.40pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
