Northampton explain reasons why Chunya Munga 'looks ready' to shine

Kudos to Phil Dowson and his succession planning at Northampton. Having previously been unable to convince Chunya Munga that his development would be best served at Franklin’s Gardens, the director of rugby nibbled again in the summer of 2023 following the sad collapse of London Irish – and this time he struck it lucky.

The 24-year-old initially did well at the Saints but as things incrementally got more serious in their successful run to the Gallagher Premiership title and the Champions Cup semi-final, the more he was squeezed out of the selection picture.

Ten appearances – six as a starter – was his contribution but the new 2024/25 campaign is expected to be his time to become a leading light in Dowson’s pack. For sure, the 6ft 7in, 120kg lock has the arsenal to succeed. On the books at the London Irish academy since he was 14, he represented England at U18 and U20 before making a Gallagher Premiership debut in 2019/20.

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Eddie Jones took a shine, calling him into England Test squad training in 2021 and keeping him involved even though he suffered a knee ligament injury. “The young lock, we have been looking at him for a while, he has got something about him,” claimed the coach then.

“I know he has been in the pathway teams but he is a big strong, athletic, physical type player, so he is an interesting prospect for us.”

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Irish boss Declan Kidney was chuffed with how Munga’s personality and thirst for learning at the age of 21 didn’t result in him getting packed off by Jones when he pulled up lame. “That is a compliment to the personality of the young man because it would have been easy for England to say, ‘Look, he is injured, you guys look after him’. But they didn’t.

“They said, ‘We’d like to keep him in camp because he is obviously good around the rest of the players’. At the same time then you don’t want to be assigning players who are just good in and around the team room and stuff like that, but he is a young man playing right in the middle of the engine room so there are a few things physically, technically, tactically that he has to come right but seeing the potential in him is part of the trick.”

That was three years ago and Northampton are now keen to nurture this potential to its full fruition. So confident are they that Munga was entrusted with calling their lineout on last weekend’s visit to Bath and he will be in the thick of things again this Saturday when Exeter visit Franklin’s.

Dowson can’t wait. “Chunya came in with a great reputation from London Irish,” he began when asked by RugbyPass for his assessment of the second row who can make a big name for himself in his second season at the club.

“He played a lot at the front-end of last season and he didn’t play a lot at the back-end of the season and he said to me repeatedly, ‘I understand it and I get it and it’s competitive in that position but you know I am hungry and I want to play’.

“With Alex Moon leaving, with a few bits and pieces moved around, he is now in the box seat to show what he is capable of and I thought he was excellent in terms of doing some of that unseen graft last Friday night.

“He has come in and led lineouts, he has come in this season and has really found his feet from a leadership point of view and I’m really excited to see where he can take that and physically he has been very, very good in sessions.

“I have really enjoyed him in the environment because he is lively and has been very, very loud. He looks more confident and looks ready to take on the mantle.”

What originally caught Dowson’s eye and convinced the director of rugby that Munga would be a good fit for Saints? “We tried to sign him a couple of years before he came and he stayed at Irish – he was very, very emotionally engaged there.

“Then the unfortunate things that happened at Irish. When they went under, which is obviously very sad, the opportunity came to have another chat with him and we were impressed both with his physicality and his athleticism but also his mindset.

“He is very conscientious, very professional, very ambitious, and you put those things together and it becomes quite a winning combination. He had a year last year where he was getting used to how we played, he was getting used to getting into the system and stuff.

“This year, as I said, he has kicked on in pre-season and we are very happy with his application, and his energy around the place has been very good.”