History keeping O’Connell on his toes

THERE are those of us who remember the very first Munster clash with Castres in the inaugural Heineken Cup way back in 1995 under lights in the nearby town of Mazamet because the host club didn’t have the required facilities at Stade Pierre Antoine.

It’s fair to say it was an intimidating atmosphere that eventually played a part in a wide-eyed, inexperienced Munster team led by Pat Murray being defeated in the dying seconds of a robust and hard-fought contest, Castres scoring a converted try to deny Munster the draw that would have seen them through to the semi-finals.

Little did either club know they would meet on many more occasions; the rivalry has developed into one of the most regular battles in the history of the Heineken Cup, with today’s game at Thomond Park being the 12th meeting between the teams in 17 years of European rugby.

Although Castres were not always amongst the elite clubs in France, they have come to the forefront and very rarely fail to qualify in the face of intense competition year on year.

The days of Irish teams being whipping boys for the French and English are long past. Right now Castres find themselves challenging strongly for a place in the last four of the highly-charged French Championship and are out of contention to escape their Heineken Cup pool.

Munster have won eight of the 11 previous ties, including four victories on the road, and skipper Paul O’Connell has happy memories. When he was a rookie he was “brought along for the ride” back in 2000 when Jason Holland and Dominic Crotty were brilliant in a shock 32-29 win at Stade Pierre Antoine.

Although contributing two of seven Munster tries as his side swept to a 46-9 win in 2006, en route to their first Heineken Cup title, O’Connell remembers being in awe of “a brilliant individual performance by Barry Murphy”.

But one other stand-out moment had nothing to do with Munster’s excellence, or the 2005 and 2006 Thomond Park victories. It was the confrontation between Ronan O’Gara and formidably-built Castres back row Paul Volley, whose attempts to put O’Gara off when kicking for goal rankled with the out-half.

“Volley used be giving Rog abuse when he was kicking; Rog said a few words to him in a press conference and I had to separate them — to save Rog!”

There will be no Volley this afternoon, but O’Connell refused to believe it will be easy for Munster, even if Castres travel with nothing to save other than face. He also refused to accept plaudits until his side qualify out of a tough group.

Four wins from four, but two of them at the death, means Munster won’t go into this tie with a swagger by a long shot.

“This side is in its infancy in many ways. We’ve had some good tests early on in the group in terms of winning close games.

“I certainly like the attitude of the young guys as they’ve emerged in recent months. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves. We’re four from four; two of those were last-minute drop-goals. If those had drifted wide, we wouldn’t be having a conversation about our unbeaten run; we’re heading in the right way, but at the same time, everyone is aware that there’s a long way to go.”

He is convinced Castres will throw down the gauntlet on the basis that they’ve nothing to lose.

“They’re a very good side. They’ve a very good lineout, very hard to analyse with lots of variations. I’d know Scott Murray very well and he’s excellent.

“They’ve a very good scrum as well. We had a tough, tough battle against them over there. Chris Masoe is a big part of the game plan in every way and they can score tries. They scored early on against us and were 11-0 up, so they can hurt you if you’re not on your form.

“It’s hard to know, I suppose. They’re fourth in the league, they’ve been up and down. Last week they were losing heavily early on against Stade Francais, but they eventually scored some good tries, so I reckon they’ll be tough for sure.”

But Munster have come through four stern examinations to date, and O’Connell is banking on that dogged resilience to see them through again.

Over-confidence won’t be an issue.

He said: “It’s not like we’re in a position where we’ve been completely dominating teams, that we feel we can give that a thought. There have been plenty of incidents down the years when you think you might have an easy game, but that’s not the case within this camp.

“We’re just going to keep fighting as hard as we can for everything we can get in this group and I’ll be happy with a win by any margin.”