Former All Black reflects on his happy years playing and working for Munster, but fears the province’s recent struggles will make it harder to get top talent
Former All Black reflects on his happy years playing and working for Munster, but fears the province’s recent struggles will make it harder to get top talent Doug Howlett: ‘I loved every minute of my time with Munster and wouldn’t change a thing.
’ Photograph: Bryan Keane/InphoNothing lasts forever. Least of all records. Given time, they all tumble eventually. And so it was that Will Jordan scored a hat-trick in47-17 win over Italy in Wellington last weekend, thus taking his tally to 50 and overtaking Doug Howlett’s long-standing landmark.
Howlett set his record in 2007 with 49 tries in 62 Tests and is sanguine about Jordan passing him out.
“I had it for 19 and three-quarter years,” Howlett tells The Irish Times with a broad grin in a cafe in his home city of Auckland. “I can’t believe it lasted that long really. So many players threatened to catch me. Julian Savea exploded on to the scene, got to 46 and looked sure to take it.
“So did Christian Cullen, and before them Joe Rokocoko got to 46 as well. And don’t forget Beauden Barrett is on 46 and he could get back in the mix as well,” adds Howlett. All-Ireland final tickets: How are they distributed?schools are having a midterm break and the Howletts spent a week in the beautiful coastal town of Matapouri, in Whangerei.
He was there with his wife Monique, and four of their children, Tom , Sam , James and Ruby Sue . Their eldest, Charles , was training with the Auckland Under-19s and Under-20s, and was also one of the players from that squad who was invited to train with the All Blacks last Tuesday. Charles has just finished in Auckland Grammar and is now in his first year at university.
An outside back in the mould of his father, a comparison of pictures of the two playing at full tilt shows that same distinctive running style. As one observer remarked: “Charles Howlett now looks more like Doug Howlett than Doug Howlett does”. Following Howlett’s retirement in 2013 aged 34, a year ahead of schedule due to a shoulder injury and after five seasons atCharles Howlett with All Blacks defence coach Tana Umaga.
Photograph: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images “That commercial role was a great learning opportunity for me to rub shoulders with the likes of Niall FitzGerald, Leslie Buckley, Patrick Coveney, and David Cronin, who was at UL . There were a host of individuals there, while I was also studying at UCC . I did my MBA there.
” “We had to redefine how commercial models should be working for professional teams,” said Howlett, who highlighted some “eye-opening” experiences such as spending a few days with Barcelona.
“That commercial board at Munster were really forward thinkers. ”and debated about returning to Auckland before doing so in 2019.
“We’d been away from our parents and extended family for 11 years so we decided to come back in 2019, which was fortunate because it was just before Covid struck. ”“We built a manufacturing facility that can make on scale, frozen and chilled meals. We’re probably among the top three largest in the country. It was inspired by one Patrick Coveney, who was Greencore CEO at the time.
That started the wheels in motion. ” Charles was a baby when Howlett left the Auckland Blues, where his 55 tries is still a record, and joined Munster halfway through the 2007-08 season. Their other four children were all born in Ireland.
“Christian Cullen had been there before me, and it was the best decision we ever made. I loved every minute of my time with Munster and wouldn’t change a thing. ” Noting how All Blacks such as Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane have played for Leinster, Howlett is saddened to see how Munster have fallen.
“Only because of the experiences that I had. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. And I just feel, what’s happening at the moment, they’re going to find it difficult to attract international players, or top-notch international players, and allow them to have the experience that I had; that uplifting effect the Munster rugby team could have for the whole region.
“When it came to Gaelic football or hurling it was like ‘yeah, we have to beat Tipperary’ or ‘we have to beat Clare’ and so on, but when the Munster rugby team does well, everybody in the province unites behind them. It’s a very special region and a very special bond between the team and the supporters.
” That was impressed upon him in his Champions Cup debut, in January 2008, when Munster took a pummelling in Clermont and trailed by 20-6 at half-time, but recovered to extract a bonus point from a 26-19 defeat.
“Afterwards in the ground and the airport the Red Army were all saying: ‘Well done Dougie, you got us a bonus point’. And I was thinking: ‘We lost the game. Why are they so happy? ’ But, of course, they were right.
” Thanks to that bonus point, a 19-3 win at home to Wasps a week later ensured Munster topped a three-way tie and put out both Clermont and Wasps, before going on to win their second Heineken Cup. That was the highlight, along with Magners League titles in 2009 and 2011 when Howlett was one of Munster’s try scorers in the final against Leinster.
“But it was more than that. I think I got the best of both worlds, the professional game with some of the old values of the amateur game. I was in a Blues team with Sean Fitzpatrick and Zinzan Brooke and Munster had the same type of characters.
“They were barking and cursing at each other. But the likes of Rog , Paulie , Quinny and Axel were just demanding the best out of each other, and there was a real bond in that squad. ” As important was leaving a legacy.
“I got such a thrill out of what Earlsy and Zeebs went on to achieve in the game. ”“One of the best feelings I ever had in rugby was scoring a try and turning round to see my 14 team-mates coming towards me to celebrate. My feeling every time I scored a try was that my 14 team-mates had all helped me score it. ”He believes Clayton McMillan is a good appointment.
“Although I don’t know him personally, he created a great brand of rugby with the Chiefs and they were unlucky not to win a Super Rugby. Young players really improve under him, like Leroy Carter, who blossomed under Clayton during his time at the Chiefs. ” He stays in contact with many of his former Munster team-mates and is good friends with Isa Nacewa and Rua Tipoki.
Remarkably, both Howlett and Tipoki’s eldest boys began playing with each other in nappies while living in Cork and then became neighbourhood friends, as well as classmates and team-mates in the same year through Auckland Grammar School. Howlett is as inquisitive as he is responsive in his innately generous way through an hour in his company.
He has followed O’Gara’s coaching career and is aware of his former team-mate being linked with Leinster when Leo Cullen’s tenure finishes at the conclusion of next season.
“It’s what happens in professional sport. That doesn’t change him from being a Munster man. Leon MacDonald spent most of his playing career with Crusaders and was an assistant coach there when he moved to the Blues , which was unheard of at the time really.
“It was around that Covid time and he actually brought me into the Blues environment. We did a bit of cultural work around what the Blues mean and Leon could add to that. ” Virtually unprompted, Howlett freely admits: “We miss Ireland”. And if you ask him whether he’d be happy to see any of his kids emulating him by pursuing professional rugby careers he then says: “We don’t put any pressure on them to play rugby.
I just try to teach them good skills and habits. That’s why I played Charles at fullback and wing and centre, just to give him a better appreciation of the game.
“But if he or any of my kids did go on to play professionally,” he adds with a smile, “I’d hope that they could find time to play with Munster like I did. ”Rob Kearney on Ireland v New Zealand: ‘This backline is the best we have available’Brenda Fricker: ‘It was real violence, and I needed protection. Where was my father?
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