Ronan O’Gara: Munster ran into the most awkward team in Europe
Tempers flare between the sides during the game. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
I began compiling a list of folk for whom 2022 is a signature season when it was confirmed that Kevin Gourdon, our La Rochelle international flanker, has been forced to retire from rugby because of a threatening heart condition. He is only 31 and had just signed a two-year contract extension.
The sort that you want to build a dressing room around. He is a loss to management and his colleagues. In the greater scheme of things, retiring at 31 doesn’t seem catastrophic. He’s had a good career and has been capped 19 times by his country. Nonetheless, it’s a brutal and stark reminder not to be looking for the next hairpin until you’ve negotiated the corner in front of you.
There’s always been that sense of gratitude that my Munster career finished on my own terms. Not everyone gets to exit at a time and place of their choosing. At 2.15pm last Friday, we were set for a flight to England’s west country to meet Bath in the Champions Cup. Suits of armour ready. Then the French government told everyone to retreat to their bunkers. It forced a hasty retooling of the weekend’s plans. A Saturday morning hit-out for the squad, then as much Champions Cup rugby as I could muster. I began to take notes and add question marks.
Everyone from Damien de Allende to the Champions Cup itself. Where are they going?
I saw a piece last week from Ian McGeechan on Andy Farrell, and how he has turned Ireland into the most intriguing proposition in world rugby in 2022. We’ve seen that uppercut coming before. If Ireland’s national team was to be judged on the basis of November internationals, we would be world No. 1 more often than not.
Performances in the autumn were promising but (I am sounding like a broken record), come back again after we have visited France and England in the Six Nations and New Zealand for a three-test tour next summer. What those internationals and the opening rounds of the Champions Cup has thrown up for Farrell and his management is copious options. More of Jack Carty anon. What of Ulster centre James Hume? First Leinster, then Clermont away and then backing it up against Northampton. That’s what you call a player in form. In any conversation on outside centre, he has to be in the mix.
Connacht should have been a bit disappointed coming away Sunday from Welford Road. By half time they had the Tigers by the tail and Freddie Burns was removed from the fray, looking dejected and bereft of confidence. It seemed the moment to test Leicester’s pulse and they never did. Finlay Bealham’s yellow as less important than the bullying Dan Cole inflicted on Connacht in the third quarter.
In all that though, Jack Carty stood tall. Sunday was a big day for the Connacht 10’s game management at that level. When we talk about enhancing test credentials, this is what we refer to — in a losing effort, he kicks all his goals, nails a last-minute drop goal, his line kicking is good, and his tackling was competent. Some believe you make progress in the pecking order with a man-of-the-match performance at the Sportsground. Not true. Far better to maintain your own personal standards at a high level even when you are beaten. Is he too brittle for test rugby? There’s your answer.
By any benchmark, next year is a big one for Munster rugby. It seems to be either all duck or no dinner there. The disruption of further departure announcements from the coaching staff is temporarily forgotten by the visceral thrill of that win against Wasps. Only to be followed by the stultifying 80 minutes against Castres last Saturday which pin-pricked everyone’s excitement. It wasn’t that Munster box-kicked too much, it was that they box-kicked poorly too often.
There were mitigating circumstances Saturday, however. There’s been a massive under-appreciation of what Munster faced at Thomond Park. That is what Castres do to every opposition, every week. They are one of the most difficult teams in Europe, if not most difficult, to play against. And they are very proud of that fact, a trait handed down to this current group who play for their identity and what they stand for. They dog it out for each other.
I knew within five minutes that it was going to be a tight arm wrestle. Remember that Castres butchered two glorious opportunities for tries off intercepts, which were both harder to screw up. Castres have a lot of smart scrappers around the contact zone, the tackle and high balls. Munster knew too that Castres are not the sort of side you want to fall behind against. They trade on not conceding easy scores. Munster knew Monday morning they’d been in a dogfight.
The half-back situation is up in the air again. Joey Carbery’s fractured elbow will again deny him the one thing he craves — consistent game time. I would love to be privy to the playbook Conor Murray was given on Saturday night.
He is playing in chains at the moment. Whether they are self-imposed or not is an intriguing question. Now that his contract situation is settled, there’s an opportunity to refocus for 2022. Jack Crowley had a nice cameo against Castres, the sort that has the taste of more of it. Spring could be his time.
Damien de Allende is genuinely class. No matter who he plays against, the World Cup-winning centre appears to have time on the ball. He can run, glide, pass, offload and hit. The full package. A box full of tricks and a very, very interesting player.
How much of a loss would he be if he to follow his compatriot Johann van Graan out of Munster? Perhaps there’s a 12 in Chris Farrell. I am not sure we are seeing the best of him at outside centre.
You see glimpses and wonder would Munster get more if he was on the ball more.
The breakout star of northern hemisphere rugby in 2021? Anyone trump Marcus Smith? The Phillipines-born 10 will only be 23 in February, but he already seems to have a fund of knowledge and experience under his belt. 2022 should be revealing. When you watch Harlequins, he is central to everything they do. The gameplan is tailor-made for him, but there’s a spark and no fear to his play for club and country.
Quins have a catalogue of plays to get the most out of their star asset, and they are doing what good teams do — playing to their strengths. Smith is proper good and will get better. His better days are ahead and he can get to a scary level of consistent performance. It’s a big spring and Six Nations for him. How will Eddie Jones manage and employ England’s shiny new star?
Our affinity to the Champions Cup is well known but at the turn of the year it all seems on a knife-edge at present.
The tournament has had a difficult few weeks, much of it outside their control. Whatever people say about the 12-team pools, it was not devised by choice. However, the allure of the competition, its lustre, seems to have dimmed. French attitudes have shifted in some instances. The decision to award Montpellier five points for the cancelled game against Leinster sat uneasily in the wake of their performance with a weakened side at Exeter in Round 1. With the number of other Round 2 cancellations (or postponements?), there’s a worrying sense of uncertainty over the whole thing.
The one thing players look for is certainty. Otherwise, they switch off. The EPCR could do with some innovative spark in the room in the new year.
The competition’s heritage is too rich for it to become an inconvenience.
I’ll enjoy the grub on Christmas day, that’s for sure. We broke up for a few days R&R on Thursday afternoon. La Rochelle are at home in the relentless Top 14 to Lyon next Monday, then away to Castres Saturday week before a trip to Toulon. It might as well be the middle of March for all I know. But for one afternoon, we will leave rugby in the boot of the car and eat ourselves silly.
Have a happy, healthy Christmas.
