Biarritz task to break the Payne barrier

IN the midst of all the doom and gloom, Shaun Payne provides a chink of light as Munster face hot favourites Biarritz in the Heineken Cup quarter-final in San Sebastian on Sunday.

He takes over the full-back responsibilities from All Black legend Christian Cullen, but it’s a confident Payne who jumps into the firing line in the absence of Cullen, Ronan O’Gara and Brian Lima, who have all crashed out of the equation with injuries.

It has been a bad few weeks in that sense for Munster, who must take on the might of in-form Biarritz.

The fingers of experience all point to a Biarritz victory and an end to Munster’s dream of finally breaking a five-year Heineken Cup hoodoo.

But Payne is full of optimism, glad to have seen the back of Swansea and delighted to be in Ireland with Munster.

Although he has just turned 33, Payne has signed another one-year contract for the province and is determined to help his colleagues through to the semi-finals.

Since his arrival in Ireland two years ago, Payne has knitted into the Munster fabric with relative ease, and when others weren’t quite doing the business, he was earning the praise of coach Alan Gaffney.

Payne, an Irish passport-holder, has played centre, wing and full-back and that versatile streak finally yielded an Ireland A cap against France three weeks ago, albeit as a second-half substitute.

Ironically, his delight at winning the cap was tempered by the fact that he didn’t quite feel he came up to scratch.

But with that game consigned to history - and Ireland did win - he now looks forward to getting a crack at the full-back berth with Munster, and more importantly an opportunity of a crack at Biarritz, whom he describes as arguably the strongest and most dangerous side left in the Heineken Cup.

“I am looking forward to it. It’s all about the running lines, there is a bit more space out there.

“Sure, you have to concentrate all the time, it’s much more of a challenge. When attacking, full-backs have more options. If you want to change direction from the back, you’ve got a lot more latitude and it’s easier to see those gaps.

“I would like to consider myself a counter-attacking full-back and I have had a fair amount of experience in the position, maybe not of late but a lot in my earlier career.

“I might be slightly worried if this was my first game, but I’ve had a couple of matches under my belt in the position and I’m happy enough with the way things went.”

He expects this to be the biggest challenge of his career.

“Biarritz are a superb side with a formidable pack and a brilliant back division. They’re strong in every department and I suppose there is not even a weak link.

“I think one of the things in our favour is we are being completely written off. I’ve played long enough with these guys to know we can turn that to our advantage.

“The team spirit in this Munster squad is immense and it’s never better when all seems lost.

“If you look back through the seasons, and I was a mere observer for much of the time, Munster play their best rugby when nobody expects them to win. The quality is still there and the will to win is immense. Everyone feels that this is a great opportunity to prove the critics wrong.”

Payne also believes Biarritz may well have made a serious mistake in moving the game to San Sebastián.

“I understand why they made the commercial decision to switch to a bigger stadium but they might regret it. It won’t be home for them and there will be a lot more Munster supporters in Spain than there could have been in Biarritz. That should even up matters a little bit.”