Why Reds keep defying odds
Stradey Park, forever associated with that famous Llanelli win over the All Blacks back in 1972, is no more and the Scarlets, as they are labelled these days, have moved into a new purpose-built 15,800 capacity stadium at the opposite end of the town.
For a few years the development forced the club to take their eye off the ball and the quality of performance suffered badly. But that has been addressed and they now have an excellent young squad packed with some of the most promising young talent to emerge in Wales for years.
While the local fans were hugely disappointed to hear George North had cried off a few hours before kickoff, you can be sure those sentiments were not shared in the Munster dressing room, especially by debutant winger Simon Zebo who was responsible for marshalling the latest wing sensation to grace Welsh rugby.
An omen perhaps, in a season where Munster have surprised. They were set for a difficult Heineken Cup campaign for a variety of reasons. Short their first choice back three, the explosive ball-carrying ability of David Wallace and with the next generation learning their trade at this level, they keep defying the odds.
In last season’s tournament they couldn’t buy a victory on the road and it cost them dearly. This season they have already posted two from two.
This victory in the heartland of Welsh rugby has propelled Munster into pole position despite the obstacles laid in their way, and that without producing a complete 80-minute performance in any of their pool games to date.
Their inaccuracy in the opening quarter suggested this could be a long day but Rhys Priestland’s profligacy with the boot left the door open. To have any chance of winning Munster had to dominate the scrum and lineout but during that wobbly period their delivery was sloppy and did nothing to make life easy for Conor Murray.
The sign of a good side, however, is to recover from situations like that and once the nuts and bolts of their set-piece fell into place, Munster had the platform to subdue this willing but susceptible Scarlets outfit. Even Munster’s offloading game broke through to good effect at different stages, especially in the build up to Niall Ronan’s crucial try before the break which rocked the Scarlets and confirmed the view coming into this contest that if they could squeeze their hosts in the front five, victory was well within their capability.
When you look at the quality and experience of the players Tony McGahan is short due to injury, it takes a brave man to leave Denis Leamy, Donncha O’Callaghan and Tomás O’Leary on the bench. Yet he had the courage of his convictions to promote Niall Ronan, Peter O’Mahony and Donnacha Ryan, who have contributed massively to this campaign. The option then to call on a bench with over 350 Heineken Cup caps to close out games in the vital final quarter has worked spectacularly well, given that every game in this pool was still in the balance right to the final whistle.
Munster are now in a very strong position because they have perfected the art of playing to the death. It helps that their dwindling core of experienced players in Ronan O’Gara, Paul O’Connell, BJ Botha and Wian du Preez are delivering big time.
In addition James Coughlan, Damien Varley, Lifeimi Mafi and Denis Hurley have also delivered big performances when the pressure is at its greatest, while Zebo showed enough in attack on his debut to suggest he can unlock tight defences.
You would wonder how different this pool would look if O’Gara had missed that drop goal at the death against Northampton. That crucial three-pointer appears to have torn the heart out of the pre-tournament pool favourites, who are winless at the foot of the pool table.
The attitude and mental strength of any side is tested to the full when the opposition have the ball for sustained periods in your defensive zone as the Scarlets did through 17 phases between the 70th and 75th minute with the game balanced on a knife edge.
MUNSTER'S defence, which looked ripe for the picking at various stages during that listless opening quarter, stood firm with a series of sustained hits going in from all and sundry. That defiance was rewarded when Stephen Jones blinked first and knocked on. That was the winning and losing of the game.
Munster sapped the energy, ambition and spark from the Scarlets and as both sides left the field you got the feeling the young Welsh hopefuls were taught a valuable lesson on what it takes to succeed at this level. Whether or not they will be in a position to absorb those lessons before the return fixture remains to be seen.
Munster may be experiencing great difficulty in putting teams away but, more importantly, they are proving very difficult to beat. McGahan will settle for that for now and will hope to have some of his walking wounded back in contention for the final two rounds of the pool in January.
