Writing Reds off — haven’t we learned?
Final game in the Heineken Cup pool stage. Victory required at home. Bonus point essential.
Munster have stared down the barrel of that particular gun before. Though the party-line in the run-up to Sunday’s game against Racing Metro was the importance of getting the win before hunting bonus points, Jason Holland says the bigger picture is never far from players’ minds.
“Definitely the boys are aware of the need for bonus points in the week leading up to a game like last Sunday’s,” said Holland.
“I know everyone was saying that you’ve got to win the game first, and that’s true, but you know well what’s at stake. In that sense I was very impressed with the way they didn’t fall into the obvious trap on Sunday, of going for it too early.”
Holland can empathise. In 2003 he was one of the Munster players facing an uphill task against Gloucester at a similar stage in the competition: the ensuing victory became known, of course, as The Miracle Match.
John Hayes was one of his teammates that day. He agrees with Holland about the necessity for a bonus point win — “You can’t hide from it, it’s at the back of your mind all that week,” — but he points to one major advantage Munster had last weekend.
“The thing about playing on a Sunday is that you know what you’ve got to do,” said Hayes. “If you’re down to play Friday night then you’re in the dark, you’re not sure what’s needed. Munster-Racing was the second-last game of the weekend, so they knew exactly what was needed. That helps.”
Munster knew what was needed in 2003 also, but that was a far more experienced side.
Or was it?
“I don’t agree entirely with the line that this is an inexperienced Munster team,” said Holland.
“I know you see that in the press quite often, that the team are lacking experience, but if you go through the players one by one then you’ve got a lot of boys who’ve been there a long time, whilst others have come through Irish schools and Irish age-grade teams. They’re not that inexperienced. They know their stuff. In addition, you still have players who’ve been through the mill before to go along with them.
“People are obviously going to point to the likes of Paul (O’Connell) and Ronan (O’Gara) being absent on Sunday, and the boys who’ve retired in the last couple of years. Of course you’d miss the likes of those players, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the team that’s playing is inexperienced, and there’s plenty of nous in the management as well.”
“There were plenty lads with experience last Sunday,” says Hayes.
“BJ Botha, Donncha O’Callaghan, Donncha Ryan, they’ve all been around. James Downey and Doug Howlett have been through the mill.
“And apart from them,” as Jason says, “the experience is building nicely within the group.”
And that know-how was needed. Racing Metro didn’t have much to play for and made 13 changes in personnel from their previous outing in the competition, but they came to Limerick to play. After 20 minutes they were winning, three-nil.
“They weren’t bad at all,” said Holland. “They certainly didn’t roll over the way you sometimes expect French sides to do when they don’t have much to play for.
“Early on in particular they played with a lot of intensity and it would have been interesting if they’d had 15 men for the entire game.”
Ah yes, the sending-off. Wayne Barnes was admirably decisive in sending off Antoine Battut for using his knee on Munster forward Tommy O’Donnell, but there were quite a few people who felt the red card was a bit harsh, and they weren’t all in white and blue.
“I guess by the letter of the law it was (a red card),” said Holland. “You can’t use your knee like that no matter how light the impact. You’ll see players do the same or worse — a hell of a lot worse — and not get sent off but if you do anything like that you’re asking for trouble, and the referee was entitled to show him the red card.”
In 2003 Munster had to wait until the very end to secure their bonus point win over Gloucester. There was an echo of that patience last Sunday, which Holland found particularly impressive.
“That was a very good sign. In truth the writing was probably on the wall once Battut was sent off, but the boys showed good patience.
“When there are 14 men you can’t expect them to fold straight away, and Racing certainly didn’t, but if you keep the ball you’ll force 14 men to defend then eventually the gaps will come. It’s a question of making them work and tiring them out. And that was what was impressive. Munster held the ball and played it simple, but they made the Racing players work hard, and they punished them when the gaps came in the last quarter.”
Hayes says no matter how confident the team is, “reality” can nag away at even the most experienced player: “You know there’s always a chance you might come up short. And if you’ve been in that situation before, which we would have been, you’d be thinking you’ll use up your nine lives eventually if you’re in that win-or-bust situation every year.”
Hayes agrees with Holland that last Sunday will stand to the team as it develops; his only lament is that Munster aren’t surfing the good vibes from last Sunday into a quarter-final in the next couple of weeks.
“I’d be a big believer in momentum,” said Hayes. “A win like Sunday’s builds great spirit — the atmosphere is fantastic after it. Everyone wants to come in on Monday for the video review — often you’d dread that, but not after a game like last Sunday, everyone’s positive, you can’t wait to get out again. There were probably only injured players getting together yesterday, though — the lads are gone every which way now — some have a few days off, while others are gone into camp with Ireland, so their focus is going to have to change immediately to concentrate on the Six Nations over the next few weeks. I’d prefer to be going again soon in a quarter-final — say two weeks, to give you time to sort out any small injuries — while the spirit is good. From the first minute Sunday I thought they looked right and ready and they’ll have to build up to that again for Harlequins in April.”
