The 2009 Lions squad announcement unsettled Munster. The lesson must be learned

I have always believed that the announcement of the 2009 Lions squad to tour South Africa, eleven days before that epic Heineken Cup semi-final between Munster and Leinster in front of 82,000 people at Croke Park, played a key role in the southern province’s demise that day, writes Donal Lenihan.

Eight Munster players, including the tour captain Paul O’Connell, were chosen by Ian McGeechan to travel and Munster’s stock was at an all-time high. Two of those selections, Keith Earls and Alan Quinlan, were copper-fastened on the back of an incredible performance — in my estimation the best and most complete ever delivered by that gifted Heineken Cup winning squad — in demolishing the Ospreys 43-9 in the quarter-final at Thomond Park.

That Ospreys team had six Lions named in the same squad, underlining the quality they brought to the table at that time, yet Munster just blew them away. Only those closest to that Munster team can attest exactly to what mental impact the Lions announcement had on proceeding that day in GAA headquarters against a Leinster side which drew a line in the sand and declared, enough is enough.