Peter O’Mahony is to Munster what Paul O’Connell was for over a decade
For me, the season starts in earnest when Munster rock up to the Aviva Stadium to take on arch-rivals Leinster on Saturday afternoon in the perfect dress rehearsal for both sides with the opening round of European competition arriving a week later.
Up to this point, the season, for all our provincial sides, revolves around getting players up to big match intensity along with the incessant drip feeding of the international contingent back into the match-day squads.
It is always a means to an end with all four coaches having to continually adjust their match-day selections in order to accumulate meaningful game time for up to 30 members of the wider squad while, at the same time, trying to decipher what constitutes their best starting team with that opening round of European pool action looming large on the horizon.
At the tail end of all that mayhem, the Munster-Leinster game stands alone and provides the ideal barometer for where the sides sit after the opening five rounds of Guinness PRO12 action. It is no coincidence that, denied that launchpad on the eve of Europe due to the intervention of the World Cup last season, both entered their Champions Cup campaigns undercooked.
Munster were fortunate in that they were able to ease their way into action against Treviso, recording the inevitable victory over the perennial Italian strugglers. Leinster were not quite so fortunate, going down to a humiliating 33-6 defeat to Wasps at the RDS.
Their European campaign never really recovered.
By tea-time on Saturday, Leo Cullen and Rassie Erasmus will have a far better feel for exactly where their respective charges sit on the eve of their Champions Cup openers against Castres and Racing 92 respectively.
While Cullen has experienced all of this before, admittedly more as a highly successful Leinster skipper than as a head coach, Saturday represents new territory for the impressive Erasmus who would have experienced plenty of derby fever from his time in South African rugby.
The return of O’Mahony with 20 minutes remaining against Zebre in Thomond Park on Saturday will feel like a new signing for Munster given the inspirational Cork man failed to appear in a red shirt for a single game last season.
Whether or not he is deemed fit enough to start at the weekend remains to be seen but his presence and influence in the match-day squad will be sufficient to lift all those around him.
O’Mahony is to Munster now what Paul O’Connell was for over a decade.
Tyler Bleyendaal will also feel like a new signing despite the fact he is in his third season as a Munster player. He must still have nightmares over his only starting appearance in this fixture, at Thomond Park last Christmas, when Munster lost by 17 points.
Bleyendaal entered that contest with a debilitating groin injury still clearly effecting him as he was unable to effect any restarts or kicks at goal with Rory Scannell drafted into the side to execute those duties. Bleyendaal could barely kick out of hand in what appeared at the time a crazy decision to start him. It certainly would have done nothing for his confidence levels.
Injury free, he is now starting to have a far greater influence on the way Munster are playing and will surely look forward to his second outing against Leinster with far more relish than his miserable first encounter.
We are finally beginning to see what he brings to the table and his clash with the in-form Johnny Sexton offers the New Zealander his biggest stage to date to show the Munster public that he has been worth waiting for. After all, Rob Penney was the one who persuaded him to come to Munster and his coaching tenure already feels like many moons ago.
The work rate, consistency and moments of sheer brilliance displayed by Darren Sweetnam since the opening pre-season friendly in August has also proved a massive bonus for Munster. Erasmus would never have heard of the former Cork hurler before his arrival during the summer but was taken by him from their first interaction in training.
It is amazing what it can do for a player’s confidence levels when a new coach takes them aside and convinces them they have a major part to play in his plans. That is what has happened to Sweetnam, who spent the latter half of last season fine-tuning his skills with Cork Constitution in the All-Ireland League.
Just like Leinster’s Joey Carbery, who was given the opportunity to blossom with Clontarf in their march to All-Ireland League glory, Sweetnam benefitted from being offered regular game time every week. Having a coach who believes in him has also provided the boost to express himself and he now looks a certainty to start in the big Champions Cup games to come over the next few weeks.
However, the biggest influences on Saturday’s big derby contest could well turn out to be three sideline debutants in Erasmus, his trusted lieutenant and fellow South African Jacques Nienaber and new Leinster assistant coach Stuart Lancaster, whose recent appointment looks like a smart piece of business by the Leinster professional board.
Both coaching groups look decidedly stronger than last season and it will be very interesting to track the impact of that trio as the season progresses. The word emanating from the Munster camp is that Erasmus has wasted no time exerting his influence and that is already starting to bear fruit.
As befits a former Springbok, it is no surprise he has focused his attention on improving the basics of Munster’s game with specific emphasis on the scrum and on defensive structure and organisation.
Don’t be fooled either by the calm exterior presented to the media as Erasmus is proving way more forceful behind closed doors — as several of the Munster players found out after their only PRO12 defeat of the season at home to Cardiff Blues — than his demeanour would suggest. Shades of Joe Schmidt here.
If Munster were barely tested by a paper thin Zebre resistance in Limerick last weekend, Leinster produced a well-merited, character building win in Wales against a really impressive Cardiff Blues side, the best I have seen in a long time.
What will please Cullen most is the character and resilience shown by several players on the fringe of his starting team. With only minutes left and clinging on to a slender three-point lead, Leinster defended a series of five-metre scrums with their third choice props in situ.
Peter Dooley sits behind Jack McGrath and Cian Healy in the loose head pecking order with Michael Bent parked behind Mike Ross and Tadhg Furlong on the tight head side. Yet when the pressure was at its greatest, with former Munster lock Ian Nagle also making his competitive Leinster debut in the second row, their scrum held firm to prevail on the road against a previously unbeaten Cardiff side.
With Champions Cup action within touching distance and the small matter of taking on New Zealand twice in November, the season is set to take off. All we need now is for Schmidt to follow the lead of Martin O’Neill and extend his international contract to the next World Cup in Japan.
What’s keeping you Joe?
