The Miracle Match against Gloucester in January 2003. The Champions Cup win over Glasgow the day after Axel’s funeral. Even the glory in defeat to the All Blacks on that memorable night in November 2008 when a hiding had been feared. And others. Plenty of others.
If Munster’s history has taught us anything it is that on trying weeks like this or when their backs are to the wall, the squad, management and supporters alike pull together even more tightly, especially when their Thomond Park citadel is packed to the rafters. It is part of Munster’s DNA.
“Ya it is,” agreed Diarmuid Barron, who has the honour and decidedly onerous task of captaining Munster against an All Blacks’ XV today.
Speaking to the media from a corporate box in the ground on Thursday, he added: “I suppose there is a bit of a tribal sense when it comes to Munster in people coming together. But there is no point in talking about it, you have to show that. Talk is cheap, so hopefully we can show that”.
No fixture quite underlines Munster’s pedigree and ability to win against the odds more than one against an All Blacks’ XV.
Munster had created a rich history against touring sides anyway, but that famous 12-0 win over Graham Mourie’s New Zealand team begot a book and a play, and will forever remain a landmark victory, given it was the only defeat those all-conquering All Blacks suffered in their 18-match tour.
The 46th anniversary of that win was last Thursday when Brendan Foley dropped into Thomond Park to present the jerseys. It would have been his son’s 51st birthday on Wednesday too and Foley told the players that Axel had been born the day before he played for Munster in their 12-all draw with Argentina in 1973.
“Brendan didn’t speak much. He just wished us the best and had a couple of funny lines and we had some video messages from some world-class players like Dougie Howlett,” said Barron.
Still, Foley’s presence with the squad this week puts the difficulties around Graham Rowntree’s sudden departure into some kind of perspective, as well as a meeting with any All Blacks XV.
“They have a huge part in this club’s heart,” said Barron of the Foleys, “and in all of our hearts, whenever you wear a Munster jersey. They’ve been steeped in Munster for a long time now, and people appreciate that.”
They sure know how to invoke the past in Munster, albeit it’s not entirely necessary.
“It is all I dreamed of anyway as a kid,” admitted Barron, who hails from Cashel and captained Rockwell College to the Munster Schools Senior Cup in 2015.
“It is all you ever heard of in terms of Munster being the first Irish team to beat the All-Blacks. Ireland hadn’t beaten the All Blacks, so it is very special, a special week and we’ve got to show that and we’ve got to show what that means to us. There is no point in just talking about it,” he stressed again.
Back in 2008, Barron was 10-years-old when there was a palpable fear over the prospect of a strong All Blacks XV facing a somewhat makeshift Munster team. Without their Irish squad players, Munster’s amalgam of senior pros and inexperienced young players, some of whom had been confined to playing club rugby that season, played fearlessly on a throbbing night in Limerick.
They were on the threshold of another famous win until Joe Rokocoko’s 77th minute try, but Barron says inspiration can be drawn from that defiant display too.
“I think you could take into account all the big games Munster have played in. You don’t have to look too far for inspiration around here. But yeah, 100%. That was an incredible thing to watch, I think it was the opening of the new stadium, and what a spectacle.
“I remember they dropped the ball in from a helicopter. I remember watching that on telly and thinking ‘this is incredible’. But, yeah, of course you take inspiration from that, but we want to have a right old crack off it ourselves and see where the chips fall.”
There’s no doubt that even a game of this magnitude has been overshadowed by the departure of Rowntree, which had been ‘mutually’ agreed between the IRFU, Munster and the coach himself and was announced last Tuesday.
“I definitely didn’t see it coming to be honest,” said Barron, the players having been informed remotely on Tuesday, which had been a day off after the two-game trek to South Africa.
“We were told just before it was released to the media. It was strange, obviously a bit of shock around it, but we have got a pretty big task on our hands Saturday, so we couldn’t dwell on it, we had to drive forward.
“That is the way it has been so far the last couple of days, we have trained, we’ve got a task and we have to get stuck into that and look forward, maybe deal with things in a week’s time or a few days after, but the magnitude of the game we have on Saturday, that is what we have been focusing on.”
They haven’t seen Rowntree but some players have been in touch, including Barron. The hooker’s sense of “shock” at the development was compounded by his liking for Rowntree, a very engaging, warm-hearted, sharp-witted old-school coach who bought into the Munster zeitgeist over his five-plus seasons with the province.
“I am very fond of Graham,” said Barron, “and a fantastic family as well. It has been great to know them, and I would like to think there will be a relationship that will continue on there. So, absolutely fondly remembered, the work we have done with him, and like many other players I will cherish the time.”
Barron also has a sense of debt to his old boss, for his game time increased after being elevated to the senior squad when Rowntree was forwards’ coach, and even more so in the last two and a bit seasons with him as head coach.
“He showed a lot of faith in me, along with the rest of the coaching ticket,” said Barron. “I won my first trophy under him. He selected me as captain of Munster for the first time, so I suppose I have a lot to thank him for really. As a player he has been driving me on and showing a lot of faith in me, so I have a lot to thank him for.”
That 2008 performance may, in part, have been induced by a hint of fear but there’s plenty more to motivate this Munster team without that emotion this time.
“When you play rugby, in general I suppose there’s an element of apprehension at times. But you’ve just got to go and you’ve got to get stuck in and what the crowd will want to see and what everyone around Munster wants to see is us getting stuck in from the get go, and [let] be what may then after that.
“But fear isn’t the word, maybe just nervous excitement, and that’s around the place at the moment. What a fixture to be part of. I know for sure I will look back at it and have a better appreciation of what I have right now, and I think I have a decent appreciation of it now. But what a special occasion to be involved in.”
For Munster, and for Barron as much as anybody, this week has been tinged with sadness. But for him, and them, there would be no better way of demonstrating their gratitude to their former boss than putting on a show this evening.
