What has transpired over the last six months in the name of Munster and Irish rugby is nothing short of a disgrace

Tony Ward

Leinster's Jordan Larmour contests a high ball with Munster's Andrew Conway during Saturday's United Rugby Championship encounter at the Aviva Stadium. Photo: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

May 23 2022 02:30 AM

Irrespective of your bias, what we witnessed at the Aviva was a cracking encounter between two provinces, albeit with very different end goals, but each taking it to the other on the full.

For those of blue persuasion it was almost heavenly in its execution and outcome. For those unashamedly red, hints of what might have been and still can be in time with a solid and committed coaching/management in place.

What has transpired over the last six months in the name of Munster and Irish rugby is a disgrace and nothing short. Losing the comforts and everything financial that a home knockout fixture would entail is massive but ironically in not achieving that play-off target, Munster have got off extremely light given what an away quarter-final might have entailed.

I say that with no disrespect whatsoever to Ulster. However, when comparing a trip up the M1 to the Kingspan as opposed to an overnight flight to Northern Transvaal to take on the Blue Bulls in Pretoria, it’s a no-brainer. Short of a home quarter in the last eight they couldn’t have done any better on the back of yet another underwhelming attacking performance.

At least their head coach was true to his word when promising in advance that “our strategy won’t change for Leinster, it’s week 48 in our season and we’re going to approach it in the same way we approached the previous 47”. He might have left the Wasps game back in December out of that summation when a Munster squad, minus 34 players and coaching staff due to Covid isolation in South Africa, picked up a sensational 35-14 bonus point victory.

Yet again on Saturday the difference between the teams when in possession was marked. The Leinster shadow squad were every bit as comfortable as their first-choice brethren in terms of instantaneous assessment and execution. A little over the hour mark the breakdown in tackles read; Leinster 123 to Munster’s 65. Almost two to one yet the score-line read 32-25 to the home side at that stage and four tries to three within that spread. Little elaboration necessary.

Only three – Cian Healy, Joe McCarthy and Ciarán Frawley – of the Leinster semi-final squad against Toulouse were called into action on Saturday. Clearly there is concern still over Tadhg Furlong and his presence, for all of Leinster’s many strengths, is close to essential. Healy at tighthead is an obvious option but only in the ‘worst case’ scenario of Furlong failing to make it or indeed lasting even an hour against La Rochelle.

Frawley despite having to leave the field early made a huge impact when being central to two typical Leinster tries executed equally well by Scott Penny and Cormac Foley. For Foley (in his second full start) and Ben Murphy (first time out at senior level) it was a daunting experience with Conor Murray immediately opposite.

Both performed with the confidence you would expect from any player picked to represent Leinster at this point in time. I would make the point too that despite the lazy assertion of Leinster having massively big schools with massively big playing populations, Foley, along with Max O’Reilly and Jack Conan is from the modest background of St Gerard’s in Bray and there are many others in the current setup minus a Blackrock or St Michael’s cup-winning introduction.

Leinster has got to where it is because of the way in which it identifies and handles its emerging talent but added to that is the astute manner in which the coaching team at the very top, specifically Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster, handle each and every individual player of promise.

And on Saturday there were so many individuals in blue to catch the eye. Harry Byrne more than matched his immediate opposite in red while Foley (save for one or two over-cooked box kicks), Frawley, Rory O’Loughlin, Adam Byrne and most of all Jordan Larmour had their moments with the latter bursting with energy and a well-deserved Player of the Match to boot.

Up front the back-five were immense with both second-rows – Josh Murphy and McCarthy – direct from the James Ryan/Ross Molony school of hard graft. Immediately behind, Ryan Baird, Penny and Max Deegan were immense. While injuries particularly to Frawley will be an issue in the coming days. The case for having Larmour and Baird on the bench in Marseille, for fear of having to chase the game late on, is compelling.

For Munster a case of whole-hearted endeavour yes but old habits die hard and are ingrained in training and not deliverable to order in the white heat of battle. All is not lost, far from it. They will certainly stretch Ulster to the limit but all is not right in the camp either nor can it be until they get their house fully in order off the field as well as on. Thankfully that day is now fast approaching.

What has transpired over the last six months in the name of Munster and Irish rugby is nothing short of a disgrace

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