Coming back from the depths
While Leinster bask in glory, Munster must tackle the darkness of their RDS nightmare
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Michael Cheika woke up on Sunday morning bathed in beams of bright sunshine and raucous birdsong filling his ears. For Tony McGahan, Sunday morning arrived dark and despairing, with a thumping headache assailing his senses.
"Sunday morning, it was very difficult to wake up," admitted McGahan yesterday, returning to the city where Leinster had so comprehensively touted their European supremacy less than a week before the 15th Heineken Cup competition fizzes refreshingly into view.
"You were hoping for a bit more darkness and that the morning wouldn't come. Yesterday was a long day as it always is after any sort of loss, especially so after the one on Saturday night. It certainly hasn't got any easier, we're still very disappointed with our performance."
dominance
Nobody would be foolish enough to suggest that the balance of power has swung irreversibly towards Leinster following a decade of European dominance from the men in red.
Certainly not anyone within Leinster, as Cheika avers. "I've said genuinely that not a lot of people expected us to win the Heineken Cup last year," he admits. "And I think even less people expect us to back it up."
Like Munster -- away to Northampton Saints -- Leinster this week confront a high-flying Premiership side in the guise of London Irish, albeit comforted by Saturday night's stunning display of excellence.
Munster have no such safety blanket. Battered and bruised from the humiliation, they seem, on the face of it, to be as despairing as at any time in the last decade.
History records that they have always managed to manufacture a resourceful rebound from the depths of despair -- one recalls their ultimately successful trip to Welford Road to play Leicester six years ago being shrouded in similar clouds of doom.
But whatever about their physical well-being after such a pummelling from Leinster's matured pack, it is their mental recovery which will prove to be equally important this week as they seek to maintain their impeccable record of reaching the Heineken Cup knock-out stages for 11 successive years.
Paul O'Connell mentioned the word "attitude" six times at yesterday's launch, confirming many suspicions that his side had, most unusually, almost been beaten before the off.
"I don't think it will take much from me to motivate the guys this week," said the steely-eyed captain. "It's Heineken Cup week. It was disappointing obviously but I don't think there will be much to do for me this week.
"If we don't bounce back from a performance like that or produce something out of a performance like that, then we are facing a very long year. So we should be well motivated for this week's game.
"We can be cranky as a squad when we lose. You can definitely go over the top sometimes. But we have a big game this weekend and we have to make sure we are right for that.
"It would be very easy to go into a load of contact and things like that in training now, but we just have to make sure we get our attitude right first and foremost. We probably let ourselves down attitude-wise at the weekend."
Although still clearly distressed at the compilation of horror stories from Saturday night in the RDS, McGahan retains an unshakeable belief in his players.
"I have the opportunity to see them every day at work so the belief in the squad is very strong and we will certainly set out a very clear agenda of how we need to play this week and a very clear agenda of how we need to get a result away from home."
Some would posit that the players may be losing faith in the coaching staff, especially the forwards guru Laurie Fisher, who witnessed the utter dismantlement of every area of his expertise.
O'Connell responds by retaining faith in the coaches' methods, though, arguing that his team's lack of attention to the basics had utterly undermined their challenge.
foundation
"When you try to create a game plan, as we have been doing for the last few weeks, you can leave the basics behind a little bit. You look at the line-out and the set piece and the breakdown as things that have been a foundation of our game, and we were second best in all those areas.
"If we were to start thinking everything was technical problems we would be wrong.
"A lot of our problems were mindset and attitude. The breakdown is a real attitude thing and you saw the attitude from the Leinster players there was far better. It is something we need to get right."
Pending the outcome of the John Hayes case, they will at least do so with a full pack. Leinster will wait on Stan Wright, although CJ Van Der Linde is expected to at least fill one of the three front-row berths now required amongst match-day replacements.
- David Kelly
Irish Independent
