WHAT a week. What a Christmas.
It seems odd to draw a comparison from the world of football to that of rugby but looking across the water and into the English football premiership competition, it is often said that the Christmas matches play a very important role in sorting out the business and bottom ends of the league. The cluster of close matches formulates the points gap that become the telling tales as the league winds down over the next four or five months.
In the Magners league, this Christmas saw the local derbies come to the fore and the Irish provinces did battle against each other. Those very games told a tale of their own but one wonders if it is the complete story.
Knowing the scorelines and the performance outcomes of both games that involved Munster, you would wonder what the hell was going on behind the doors of Thomond Park and on the training pitches of both UL and Cork.
There may very well be more than an air of recession abound in the city and county, the country and entire globe for that matter, but the depressing manner in which the two Munster performances were delivered to the crowds in Galway and Limerick would weigh heavy on the rugby community.
Even the common reveller and occasional supporter would look on at the two results and think that they were given incorrectly by whatever media outlet of the moment.
A drab affair in Galway was thought to be a one off and subsequent changes were rung through the men in red.
Was it form? Was it fatigue? Was it mental or physical? Plenty of questions were asked but none were answered.
An injury to Paul O’Connell and a selection choice over Dowling, O’Gara, O’Leary, Horan and O’Callaghan would be the order of the day for McGahan in side that he sent out to face Connacht. Flannery’s late withdrawal at the 11th hour could not be helped as the international hooker was not 100 per cent fit to return from injury.
OK, all is not lost. There’s a few days off for Christmas and a return to form is likely for the new year and the ‘battle of Thomond’ where Munster faced off Ulster would shed the cobwebs of destruction and an epic battle would forge only one result – a Munster victory – hard fought and all that…
Well that was one script not read by either side. Early radio interviews by Ulster captain, Kieron Dawson had him suggesting that the men in white were up for their trip to Limerick and felt they could edge a result. In fairness, his comments were said with a certain degree of trepidation in his throat as if he thought it was better to talk his side up than resign to an imminent defeat.
Not so, for Ulster bullied, barraged and tore Munster a new ……. (you can fill in the blank there). For the first time since ‘92, an Ulster win in Thomond, by more than 12 points, was forecast at 150/1. Class players like Humphries, Cave and Ferris showed that Ulster have something decent to offer the league and the work done by Matt Williams is not in vain. Most notable of those being Ferris, who, in my books, had the man of the match jersey all over his back.
Another jersey that Ferris should strap on his back come the trip to South Africa is that of a Lion. Watching the intensity, work rate and desire in his passionate play and there should be no other choice.
But if the Ulster game brought anything home to me, it was this. Munster are not a bad side, they did not become a bad side overnight or over the Christmas period. Yes the Magners league position is not as handsome as it once was in early December – a point noted by McGahan in the post match press conferences. The fan expects a Munster win at every outing and there is nothing wrong with that. They demand perfection as a result of recent success.
Yes the players could very well be fatigued and in a small state of disarray. They’re focus has taken a battering as they sit at the throne of European Rugby where everyone wants to take a piece from the champions.
But it is in the omission of players and inclusion of others that tells the most.
Earls is nothing but class and at full back, despite the notion that he is still learning his trade, he is the most obvious selection above any. His turn of pace and ability to step off a run and take players out puts him in a driving seat to cover the Munster backline. It should also put him on a plane seat to South Africa.
Howlett, employed by Munster Rugby as a world class full back, is grand where he is on the wing. Last Saturday he wasn’t so grand on letting in a number of tries down his wing, but again you don’t fall from grace overnight and he certainly has not. A minor blip was once a favoured term, so we’ll go with that.
The Munster scrum does not function without Horan. Often criticised, for what reasons I don’t fathom, for some of his play, but a Munster pack going forward without the Clonlara man just doesn’t seem to work.
So, what does the remainder of 2009 hold for Munster. Nothing different than we thought before.
There will be a huge surge to retain the top trophy in European club rugby. The sterling test of that will come against Sale. A test that Munster will face up to without their talisman Tipoki. The injury sustained at the weekend will see him in the stand watching on for the next four or five weeks. But they can mount challenges more than the sum of their parts. They will prevail.
McGahan will have his players ready, he’ll have their minds set and it will be back to business for Munster come cup time. This weekend, I’m not expecting a massive turnaround from a travelling side to Wales. I’m expecting a change of point and a focus on the basics coupled with a result that will show little.
It will be the week that has passed us by and the week that is to come where most work will be done and McGahan will work them to the core.
Meantime, Federico Pucciariello was cleared to play at an IRFU citing commissioners meeting this Tuesday following his sin-binning against Ulster.
