The former Munster and Irish second row Donal Lenihan can’t understand why Munster are letting fellow Corkman James Cronin leave Munster rugby and neither can many Munster people to be honest.

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“This is a homegrown fella. He’s only 30 years of age. The best three or four years are ahead of him.

“He’s had a fantastic season. He’s never started more games for Munster.

“Dave Kilcoyne is neck and neck with Cian Healy for that Ireland loosehead jersey at the moment and James Cronin isn’t that far behind him. Kilcoyne missed a huge amount of rugby at the start of the year. James Cronin came in and he was outstanding.

“It does come down to money but this is a decision they got wrong.

“Josh Wycherley is a fantastic young player. We saw the job he did in the game against Clermot but he had a rough introduction against (Rabah) Slimani but came back well, but we haven’t seen him since. I don’t know what’s the story with him. He’s played very few minutes.

“You have Liam O’Connor who is another good young loosehead. I remember Jeremy Loughman getting Man of the Match against Ospreys in a Heineken Cup game about two years. There is depth there.

“There’s no question in my mind that James Cronin is tight number two behind Killer. There is no way you should be leaving a player of that stature go. Make the budgetary cuts somewhere else. If you have to lose player 44 in order to keep him, then that’s what you do.

“If you’re in a quarter-final or semi-final, and Killer gets injured, when you see James Cronin coming in off the bench, you’re not worried and the players around him aren’t worried.

“I think it sends the wrong message, especially in light of another South African second row/back row coming into the squad – how much is he (Jason Jenkins) costing?”