Flat start to Heineken Cup assault

AS opening salvos go, it proved a very disappointing weekend for the Irish in Europe.

At the outset, the only certainty appeared to be Ulster’s home clash against Italian side Benetton Treviso, and so it proved. By securing a bonus point, the northerners achieved their most positive start to the competition in years. For Munster and Leinster, however, frustration was the order of the day.

It was not the start Munster would have hoped for but not entirely unexpected in the circumstances. After winning Europe’s second grade competition on two occasions, the Manchester outfit have loftier ambitions. While there is no denying Sale deserved their victory, Munster were unfortunate not to have secured at least a bonus point.

The opening 20 minutes offered a role reversal of the blueprint Munster regularly present at Thomond Park - forward dominance, characterised by massive collisions up front. This supported by an out half controlling field position with an outstanding kicking game. Only problem, it was Sale who were executing the plan. In the back of his mind, Ronan O’Gara must have held a sneaking admiration for Charlie Hodgson at this stage.

Munster absorbed the pressure and showed magnificent character to come back and lead at the interval. With a solid lineout platform provided by the returning Mick O’Driscoll, who had an outstanding game, Munster’s forwards launched the rolling maul from the memory bank. The sequence in the build up to Frankie Sheahan’s opening try left Sale reeling. In the face of continuous pressure, Munster’s defence was heroic and their achievement in reaching the break without conceding a try offered a huge psychological boost.

Given the quality of their defensive platform, it must be a huge disappointment to Declan Kidney that Sale’s two tries resulted from Munster’s mistakes. Reduced to seven forwards, when Sheahan was sin-binned early in the second half, the Munster pack performed heroics in defending three five metre scrums against the massive Sale eight. In this respect, nobody did better than Marcus Horan.

But Munster made a cardinal error when, having won the put-in to defend their own line, they failed to put one of their backs in the back row to bolster the scrum. The resultant Sale try was the turning point.

The other key factor was the introduction of massive French hooker, Sebastian Bruno, early in the second half. Sale now had four exceptional ball carriers in Bruno, Chabal, Sheridan and White. That allied with the incredible pace of “Billy Whizz” himself, Jason Robinson, was the difference between the teams.

Such was the physical presence offered by Sale that Munster decided to introduce Trevor Hogan for the injured Alan Quinlan, rather than the more obvious David Wallace, in an effort to stem the physical onslaught.

There are a number of positives that can be taken for the road that lies ahead. While introducing four new players to Heineken Cup rugby, two of the younger school Barry Murphy and Tomas O’Leary, showed sufficient promise to suggest that they will both have long campaigns in the red jersey.

While one can see how Sale have stolen a march over traditional English high fliers Leicester and Wasps, there was plenty evidence to suggest Munster have the ability to turn the tables when Sale return to Thomond Park for the last game in the pool in January. The challenge for now is to ensure that they are still in contention when Sale arrive.

The most worrying aspect of the defeat was the sight of Alan Quinlan hobbling from the field in the second half. He has been in outstanding form of late and his presence will be sorely missed in the vital game against Castres next weekend.

Leinster’s decision to move their games to the RDS proved a resounding success everywhere but on the scoreboard. This was a brave Leinster performance particularly given the fact that they were forced to line out without five Irish internationals and then lost prop Will Green just prior to kick off.

Last January, when these sides met at the Rec, Leinster managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with two injury-time tries. While they hardly deserved it on that occasion, there was every chance they would repeat the dose on Saturday. Trailing by three points in injury time, Leinster were making all the running.

In the absence of injured Lions Brian O’Driscoll and Denis Hickie, it was up to their stand in captain, Felipe Contepomi, to inspire. The Argentine didn’t disappoint scoring all 19 points. He received great support from Leinster young hopefuls, Kieran Lewis and Robert Kearney.

Bath were cynical and totally devoid of any creativity. One can now understand why they struggle to score tries in the Premiership. In out half Chris Malone, they have a kicking machine who rarely seeks the wide expanses. This is a pity as their foreign imports on the wings, French international David Bory and South African Frikkie Welsh look menacing.

The trouble for Leinster is that they have been pitted against a massive Bath pack at a time when their own set-piece is encountering severe systems failure. Their scrum was under constant pressure throughout and once again their lineout malfunctioned.

The only positive was the return in the second half of Malcolm O’Kelly, making his first appearance since the injury that forced him out of the Lions tour. His presence will be badly needed over the coming weeks.

In an exact replica of the Munster match, the turning point in this game came with a yellow card early in the second half. In place of Frankie Sheahan substitute Leinster hooker David Blaney, who sacrificed himself by preventing an almost certain Bath try. As with Sale, Bath exacted maximum revenge with a seven-pointer from the resultant penalty. Thereafter, Leinster lost their momentum.

While Leinster’s more positive approach deserved better, rugby is a game where the dominant team up front invariably wins. This was a further case in point.

By way of comfort, at least fellow pool contestants Bourgoin looked singularly unimpressive in disposing of Glasgow at home. This pool is still wide open.

Castres top Munster’s pool with a bonus point victory over the Dragons, but they too looked vulnerable. For the Munster men, the return to arms at Thomond Park next Saturday seems the perfect place to relaunch their assault on establishing themselves in the Heineken Cup group stages.