HEINEKEN CUP POOL ONE:THESE ARE strange days for Munster. Last Friday night's win over Perpignan was unquestionably gripping and characterised by the valour that the Thomond crowd has come to expect from their team. But the nature of their 24-23 victory threw up plenty of material for the practice ground and once again illuminated the unreadable nature of Munster's form this winter.
The biggest surprise of the night was, in retrospect, no surprise at all: that Ronan O’Gara shrugged off a dip in kicking form that was treated as a national crisis to land seven penalties and a bold drop goal, ensuring Munster had their noses in front at full time.
Still. The concession of three startling tries –“Your words” cautioned Munster coach Tony McGahan when it was suggested to him that the Perpignan scores were “freakish” – was not the stuff of vintage Munster. No home try for the red fans to crow about. The redoubtable Jerry Flannery on the sick list. Jean de Villiers, so long an ever-present member of the Springboks starting XV before Munster landed his prized signature, selected on the bench for this match. Plenty to suggest that all is not perfect as Munster prepare to play in front of what will be a rampantly expectant Perpignan crowd on Sunday (3pm Irish time).
After training yesterday, McGahan was understandably pleased about the news that Flannery ought to be declared fit enough for selection for the Treviso game in mid January, news that was confirmed by Flannery’s surgeon in London at lunchtime.
But he admitted Munster’s form on Friday night had left the team with plenty to discuss. Despite the presence of ice packs on Denis Fogarty and Keith Earls after a double training session in Limerick University, he was able to select a full squad. When he reflected on their desperately close encounter with the French side, he felt the Munster problems were elementary and that Perpignan’s form was as they had anticipated.
“We believe that we are creating the opportunities that we could have taken more advantage of. We studied them from a tactical point of view from a number of their games, as we always do, and we felt what they produced there on Friday evening was pretty close to the mark.
“We expect an increase in emotion and in physicality associated being at home, so with those, coupled with their game-plan, they are a good side.”
McGahan continued: “Defensively I thought we were pretty solid apart from those lack of reactions that I spoke of.”
“From an attacking perspective, I felt we needed to work on our execution. We did create opportunities.”
McGahan agreed that omitting de Villiers from the starting line-up was not an easy decision and he praised the South African for his reaction to the news.
“I thought he was excellent. In terms of getting in there and being a real team player, he was very supportive of the whole group and of the centres. He showed his true colours last week, showed what a team guy he is. I thought he was tremendous.
“Look, it is not a problem,” he elaborated. “Jean is still a fantastic player. We had to make a decision in terms of what we felt was the best team for this game and we felt we need to go in a different direction. It wasn’t a case of Jean not doing this or that. We had a number of selection mixes we could have made and that was the one we went for.”
The starting XV will be named at noon tomorrow and it could be that Munster opt to restore de Villiers to the heart of the three-quarters line, which got little change out of the French.
But Perpignan are not famed for their generosity to visitors and Munster do not have particularly happy memories of the place. Their last visit, in January 2003, led to a 23-8 defeat. Ronan O’Gara, John Hayes, Donnacha O’Callaghan and Alan Quinlan are the only players likely to start on Sunday who played in that match.
“No. I was out with a broken hand so I watched it on TV,” Paul O’Connell remembered.
“They have an incredible record there. They probably won the French championship off the back of their home record. It is the only place that Munster have been badly beaten in the Heineken Cup, in recent years anyhow. But we have a lot of experience of going to these kind of places and picking up results, so there is no reason we can’t do it again.”
That will be the hope as Munster prepare for another of those season-defining, December duals. O’Connell accepts that the team has not been firing on all cylinders, but he felt their most important attribute was evident in Thomond Park.
“We were happy and disappointed with the game last week. In some parts we did well, but defensively we were quite poor. We played with a lot of intensity, but, looking back on the video, we did create a lot of chances that through poor alignment and guys working too hard to get in position we were unable to take advantage of.
“But it was a big step forward too – we dominated possession and territory. So we just need more accuracy to go with the intensity.
“But we get confidence from our intensity and that was there in abundance on Friday night.”
Munster will leave for Perpignan on Saturday morning.
MUNSTER (squad v Perpignan) –Forwards: J Brugnaut, W du Preez, D Hurley, D Fogarty, D Varley, J Hayes, T Buckley, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, P O’Connell, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace, D Leamy, D Ryan, N Williams. Backs: F Jones, P Warwick, D Hurley, I Dowling, D Howlett, K Earls, J de Villiers, L Mafi, R O’Gara, P Stringer, T O’Leary.
