Northampton 36 Munster 51:HEADING INTO this Heineken Cup campaign, there appeared a genuine possibility that, like last season, Munster wouldn't claim what had effectively become their birthright over the past decade or so and quality for the knock-out stages of the tournament. Oh ye of little faith.

Not only have Tony McGahan’s side managed to reach the last eight for the 13th time in 14 years, they’ve done so as the top-ranked side in Europe, having recorded six pool wins out of six for the first ever time in their illustrious Heineken Cup history. And all this in an apparent season of transition, too. It really is a remarkable achievement.

“The six from six is always possible,” said Paul O’Connell after Saturday’s impressive demolition of Northampton in Milton Keynes, “but I probably wouldn’t have been all that confident of it happening.”

Tony McGahan too, you’d imagine, hadn’t exactly been expecting a clean sweep of pool games. “You look towards each year to be able to do something special as a group but at this point of where we are in the season, to be six from six, is a tremendous reflection of what we achieved,” said Munster’s coach.

Saturday was the culmination of three months of steady progress. Munster haven’t always convinced in their five previous Pool One victories this season, mostly because of their apparent lack of potency out wide, but most of their problems – if not quite all given the problems they had in the scrum – disappeared into thin air at Stadium MK.

To put the five-try, 51-point victory into context, Munster have only passed the half-century points mark on three previous occasions in this competition, and two of those scorelines came against Italian minnows Viadana. But as the second half progressed they looked capable of scoring tries for fun as their backline finally happened onto the same wavelength.

Denis Hurley, for example, executed his pass perfectly to Johne Murphy outside him on 43 minutes, with the winger stretching brilliantly to finish the move off in tight confines. Munster’s third try, finished off with a flourish by Simon Zebo, involved even more hands, with Ronan O’Gara, Keith Earls and Hurley again getting their depth, lines of running and passing bang on the money to put the left winger away.

“We delve into the analysis of the game in deep detail and knew that the shape we’re getting into, and the ways we were creating things, it wasn’t that far away and we just needed that last part, whether it was depth, speed or control,” explained McGahan.

All that certainly seemed to arrive on Saturday, but despite the scoreline, the game wasn’t completely straight-forward. Munster couldn’t escape from their half in the opening 20 minutes – “our exit strategy left a lot to be desired,” said McGahan of that period – and found themselves 13-3 down after Northampton were awarded their first penalty try at the scrum on 16 minutes.

Romain Poite would award another to the Saints 17 minutes into the second half and if there was one worry for Munster on a night of many positives it was the sight of their scrum been shoved backward at an alarming rate.

“It is a concern,” admitted McGahan. “We were facing an extremely strong scrum but we’ve had some decent hit-outs this year with regards our scrum, and progress has certainly been made. And that’s something we’ll continue to go forward with.”

O’Connell preferred to look at the positives in that respect. “It’s a credit to BJ (Botha), you know, to be under pressure in the scrum and pull out that try for us like he did for us before half-time. That was a big moment for us, to be 13-3 down and to get back to 19-16 up, that was a big boost.”

Looking back, Botha’s try was the game’s turning point. It allowed the visitors to go in at half-time in control of both the game and the scoreboard, and come out to unleash a storm. While the backline, and Zebo in particular, will get many of the plaudits, the back-row combination of Donnacha Ryan, Peter O’Mahony and James Coughlan carried the ball with real intensity and purpose during that second period, while the irrepressible O’Connell and the perennial game management of O’Gara were also crucial.

“Our leaders, like Paul and Ronan, have stood up and dragged us through the stages and everybody else has climbed on board,” said McGahan. “I think the results this year have been moulded through those two guys.”

Transitional season or not, there is now at least some belief from one of those leaders that Munster can buck the trend in this competition and become the first team to win six from six in the pool stages to go on and lift the trophy.

“I hope we can,” said O’Connell. “There is a long way to go yet . . . The ball ran our way a little bit against Northampton, which was great but I think we have a way to go to get up to the standards of the Leinsters and the Toulouses of the Heineken Cup yet. But certainly, with a bit of luck and the rub of the green, we have a chance of winning it.”

Scoring sequence– 6 mins: Lamb pen 3-0; 12 mins: Lamb pen 6-0; 14 mins: O'Gara pen 6-3; 16 mins: Pen Try, Lamb con 13-3; 20 mins: O'Gara pen 13-6; 28 mins: O'Gara pen 13-9; 30 mins: Lamb drop-goal 16-9; 31 mins: Botha try, O'Gara con 16-16; 37 mins: O'Gara pen 16-19; 39 mins: Lamb pen 19-19; (half-time 19-19); 43 mins: Murphy try, O'Gara con 19-26; 49 mins: Zebo try 19-31; 57 mins: Pen Try, Lamb con 26-31; 64 mins: O'Gara pen 26-34; 67 mins: Lamb pen 29-34; 69 mins: O'Gara pen 29-37; 72 mins: Zebo try, O'Gara con 29-44; 77 mins: Zebo try, Keatley con 29-51; 80 mins: Armstrong try, Myler con 36-51.

NORTHAMPTON: B Foden; J Elliott, G Pisi, J Downey, V Artemyev; R Lamb, L Dickson; S Tonga'uiha, D Hartley (c), B Mujati, S Manoa, M Sorenson, C Clark, P Dowson, R Wilson. Replacements: C Day for Clark, B Nutely for Sorenson (both 63 mins); P Doran Jones for Mujati (65 mins); A Waller for Tonga'uiha (67 mins); S Armstrong for Elliott (70 mins); S Myler for Lamb (74 mins).

MUNSTER: D Hurley; J Murphy, K Earls, L Mafi, S Zebo; R O'Gara, C Murray; W du Preez, D Varley, B Botha, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell (c), D Ryan, P O'Mahony, J Coughlan. Replacements: M Horan for Du Preez (56 mins); T O'Leary for Murray (68 mins); M O'Driscoll for O'Callaghan, S Archer for Botha and D O'Callaghan for O'Mahony (all 74 mins); I Keatley for O'Gara, D Fogarty for Varley (both 75 mins); D Barnes for Mafi (78 mins).

Referee: R Poite (France)