“A WASTE of 35 minutes”, that’s what Tony McGahan said when asked if he watched any of the recent Magners league game between Ulster and the Ospreys.
He was obviously describing the amount of information that he got from that brief encounter with the TV, but Tony McGahan is an analyst when it comes to teams and rugby games and no doubt he was not looking to that match for divine inspiration.
If it is a thing that you must search out any form of inspiration, you need not have to look to far.
Get the TV clips and the running lines of Keith Earls from last weekend’s rout of Leinster are there for us all to see.
Even in McGahan’s own words he says that, “A player like that is very exciting to watch, when he gets the ball, the crowd are off their seats and it is fantastic to watch.”
Of course it is and when Rog kicked to the corner on 60 minutes to pin Leinster back inside their own 22, the time was right for something special.
Broken play brought the teams to just inside the Leinster half where the Munster cast would kick into gear.
A long skip pass from Mafi would set Wally free to offload to Niall Ronan who then could draw two defenders and let Earls loose.
The tram lines were the guide and the Moyross man had one line in sight and thousands on their feet.
Earls shed the attention of two to beat a third on the line and score a magnificent try. A try that the game had been waiting for and so desperately needed.
But with 60 odd minutes down on the clock, the drab opening half did show that the Munster bottle was alive and well.
It might very well be the case of looking for a positive from a first 40 that did little more than show the Leinster pack to be in marauding form. Munster endured 20 minutes of that before getting to grips with a decent set of eight that were pushing and punishing on the field.
A grip they got and all while an Argentinean kicker had a complete nightmare from the kicking tee. Rob Kearney didn’t do a great deal to secure his plane ticket to South Africa and let’s just say that after this weekend’s performances, many of the decisions for Messieurs McGeechan, Edwards and Gatland could be very well made.
Munster saw out the somewhat subdued challenge of a Leinster 15 that seemed lost without Brian and their wonder kid Luke.
Strings did his usual try saving tackle act, a prerequisite that must be signed into his contract and one that Rock Elsom saw coming but could do nothing about it as the “ankle bitter” got him with yards to spare.
There was still time for a swansong from Barry Murphy who looked elusive as he returned to the fold. A line break from Rog and some clever running let Murphy away down the touchline and enough space for him to present replacement hooker, Denis Fogarty with a try and Munster with all the plaudits, despite the comments of a gasping Michael Cheika.
And so to the challenge ahead and the Ospreys that travel on Easter Sunday to Thomond Park.
A 1pm start is on the cards but no doubt the revelry will begin in earnest some time before for the famous “16th man”.
McGahan has stated that the team is in “pretty good health” so he’ll have a full deck to select from when he makes the tough decisions at key positions.
The inclusion of Leamy will come at a cost to Niall Ronan as the backrow gets reset. Strings will have challenged O’Leary over the last few weeks, but he might not have the edge over his fellow Cork man just yet – in McGahan’s eyes anyway. It’s a selection that I’d like to see go in favour of Stringer.
Either way, the physicality of the encounter will be all too apparent as the game unfolds, but you have to say that this one is there for Munster to lose.
Bias aside, it’s hard to see beyond the form team of the competition and with Earls in tow, anything is possible.
