As Toulon splash cash, Munster grow surely, if slowly
Maybe the fairytale send off for the iconic Paul O Connell will be reserved for the World Cup in a few months’ time.
Instead it was Glasgow’s inspirational captain Ali Kellock, after nine years at the helm of this Warriors side, who had the honour of finishing his club career on a high by lifting Scotland’s first ever club trophy in the professional era. On the evidence of this comprehensive win, nobody could argue with the result or the fact that the outcome was a positive one for the league as a whole.
For Munster, after a topsy-turvy season, there was nothing but disappointment to show for a lot of hard work and effort. There will also be a realisation after this heavy defeat there is a long road to travel but if the lessons are absorbed, as Glasgow did after an even heavier defeat at this stage to Leinster in last season’s decider, then it will be worth it.
The realisation that O’Connell will no longer be part of that effort will dampen expectation levels further but a new generation led by Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Tommy O’Donnell and Donnacha Ryan have already assumed the leadership of this group. It didn’t help the Munster cause in Belfast that three of those key figures were absent while a fourth, in Ryan, is only working his way back to full fitness after missing practically the entire season.
The new indigenous coaching team will be a lot wiser after a full season at the helm and will doubtless review the season in full with the emphasis on “what do we need to do better”. They will also put their stamp on the broader squad with as many as eleven players, including six who saw game time on Saturday, set to depart the scene now that the season has come to an end.
By making it all the way to the Pro 12 final, Munster have given themselves a 66% chance of being seeded in Tier 1 of the Champions Cup - two of the three losing finalists from the Pro 12, Aviva Premiership and Top 14 will join the winners of those competitions - when the draw is made in Neuchetel, Switzerland on June 17th.
Anthony Foley will be hoping for a kinder pool having been paired this season with two eventual semi-finalists in new Aviva Premiership winners Saracens and Top 14 semi-finalists and potential winners in Clermont-Auvergne.
Before all of that happens, Munster’s disappointing performance on Saturday needs to be analysed in depth as Glasgow had this contest all but wrapped up by half-time. Munster were blown away in the opening quarter and couldn’t live with the ability of the Glasgow players to offload and play out of the tackle.
It didn’t help that defensively Munster were falling off fartoo many tackles, missing 16 in total in the first half alone. Nor that there were mismatches to be found all over the pitch with too many of Munster’s front five manning the outside channels. That made it far to easy and inviting for the free-flowing Glasgow back three of DTH van der Merwe, Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour to pick off easy prey.
That said, the most effective player in possession at that stage was the mercurial Fijian second rower Leone Nakorawa. His ability to suck in defenders and produce one-handed offloads led directly to Glasgow’s opening two tries.
It didn’t help the cause either that, for the second week in a row, Munster’s kicking game was counter-productive with Ian Keatley’s persistence in kicking down the middle of the field encouraging the counter-attacking threat posed by Hogg in particular. Quite how the lessons weren’t absorbed from similar failings against the Ospreys is difficult to fathom.
Munster were also caught in two minds at the breakdown in that they committed very few bodies to the contact area to stay on their feet in an effort at stifling Glasgow’s off-loading game. That didn’t work and only facilitated the speed of the Warrior’s recycle, allowing them to dictate the pace of the game. The ability of O’Mahony and O’Donnell to contest or slow opposition ball in this key phase was badly missed.
Glasgow also succeeded in negating Munster’s maul by only handing them four line-outs in the opening half. When Munster finally got that aspect of their game going immediately after the break, they began to make inroads. O’Connell was not prepared to depart the scene quietly and had a big third quarter, when he was miraculously held up over the line and denied a try, made an excellent cover tackle and pilfered a crucial Glasgow line out destined for Jonny Gray.
Unfortunately that momentum was short-lived and put to bed when Finn Russell scored Glasgow’s fourth try on 58 minutes just after JJ Hanrahan was introduced off the bench to try and spark something behind the scrum. That score finished the game as a contest.
Glasgow proceeded to unveil a more practical side to their game with the excellent half-back pairing of Russell and Henry Pyrgos content to play a territorial game with Munster getting a taste of their own medicine.
As O’Connell prepares to swap one red jersey for another, the reality of the challenge facing Munster to rejoin the elite of the European game could not be more stark. As we salivate at the prospect of the spark that the twice capped New Zealander Francis Saili could offer Munster in midfield, Toulon capture the 94-times capped All Black Ma’a Nonu.
While the promising Cantabrian rookie Tyler Bleyendaal offers further attacking options with his ability to play flat at out half or inside centre, Toulon have lined up the 53-times capped Wallaby, Quade Cooper to perform a similar function. The list goes on.
The challenge for Munster, and indeed all the Irish provinces, is to remain competitive and in a position to consistently challenge for knockout rugby both domestically and in Europe.
Glasgow’s success in finally landing the Guinness Pro 12 title was a four year project that endured a lot of pain and disappointment on the way. Munster are experiencing something similar at present, but are going in the right direction.
