If Munster are to defy the odds against a Sharks side studded with World Cup winners and X factor in front of a 54,000-capacity crowd in next Saturday’s URC quarter-final at Kings Park in Durban, as ever on such occasions the collective performance will have to add up to more than the sum of their parts. To that end, Munster will again need dip into their reserves of emotional energy.
Munster’s history is, unfortunately at times, sprinkled with examples of them uniting in times of need, most notably in their Champions Cup win over Glasgow at a crammed Thomond Park in October 2016 the day after Anthony Foley’s funeral.
More recently, the team and supporters were united in their last two regular-season games against Ulster and Benetton to ensure a fitting farewell for Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Stephen Archer, and secure the two wins required to qualify for these play-offs and next season’s Champions Cup.
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That trio’s Munster finale will remain a factor, and so will paying tribute to Michelle Payne, wife of former fullback Shaun and a one-time employee of the Munster Branch, and Sheelagh Foley, wife of former player Brendan and mother of “Axel”.
In extending “our deepest sympathies” to the two families, interim head coach Ian Costello said: “They were two very important people in the Munster community and a massive loss to us this week, and that’s very close to our hearts.”
Speaking from Durban after the squad’s arrival there, Costello added: “Brendan rang me Sunday morning to almost apologise for not coming and wished us the best.
“Obviously Michelle and Shaun were huge in the club as well. That’s really important to the group this week especially as we’re in South Africa.”
As Shaun Payne was fullback on the 2006 Heineken Cup-winning and also played for the Sharks, tributes to both families are being discussed.
“Rugby is a very, very emotional game and I think any contact sport is,” said Costello. “People talk about physically and mentally where you have to be. I think the third part of that is emotionally: are you ready to invest everything you have and leave everything out on the pitch?
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“That’s you as an individual and you as a team. And when emotionally you’re connected to a purpose or to a cause that comes out in any team sport, especially one as physically demanding as rugby, and then when you add in pride in terms of our province, our identity and what we stand for, what we represent. How much we want to make people proud of our performance, so they can identify with who we are and what we’re about. I think all of that amplifies a lot of the good that’s there already and a lot of sports teams do it really well.
“We really leaned into it the last couple of weeks to represent people that we really care about and what they mean to the organisation and that came out in the performance. We will continue that on this week as well.”
That said, utilising emotion is a balancing act.
“I won’t go into what was said but Tadhg (Beirne) and Peter (O’Mahony) over the last couple of weeks, supported by other key guys like Jack (Crowley) and Craig (Casey), spoke so well about using that emotion but also making sure it’s balanced with a performance that’s built on execution and accuracy and being really smart.
“Same thing as discipline, if you’re over-aroused you give away too many penalties but you want to be playing right on that edge. When you’ve got coaches who are on it the way they are on it, and senior players that have lived it so many times, that really helps.”
Although conditions will not be unduly warm at the 6.30pm kick-off local time (5.30pm Irish), Costello said the humidity will make the ball very slippery.
“We’ll train appropriately, in having the ball greasy at training and making sure that if the handling skills are difficult that we’ve contingencies around where we play the game and how we play the game.”
Munster will be seeking to win three matches in succession for the first time this season but touring also tightens the squad and they lifted the URC trophy two seasons ago by ending long unbeaten home runs at Glasgow, Leinster and the Bulls.
The Sharks finished third with 62 points, compared to just 25 points when 14th last season, making them the most improved side this season.
“We obviously know that the quality is there. What we’ve seen over the last few weeks is how good they are off the ball, a team that’s highly motivated, that scramble well, they’re off the ground quickly.
“If you make a line break it takes a lot of finishing before you score. That’s one of the key differences that we’ve picked up. Their work off the ball and their non-talent stuff is in a really good place in the last six to eight games anyway,” said Costello, who also singled out the Sharks’ ability in transition.
Costello maintained this game “absolutely isn’t a free shot”.
“Now that we’re here, we’re very, very ambitious on what we want to achieve,” he added.
He believes the travelling squad is stronger than when beaten 41-24 by the Sharks in Durban last October in what proved to be Graham Rowntree’s last game as head coach but admitted: “We need to get to our best or very, very close to it. We need to be accurate. We need to execute well and physically, mentally and emotionally we need to be at the right pitch.
“If we go out and play as ourselves, if we’re clear about our DNA, our identity, we want to play high-paced rugby, we want to keep the ball alive, we want to play with really, really quick rucks, to play in the right parts of the field, do that with a platform of having a really solid set-piece, and then apply our line speed and our contact work; if we can be true to our identity around those, that I think would beat anybody on their day.”
