Munster need midfield punch

PUT any spin you like on this but unless Munster immediately perk up their level of performance by a good 20%, the dream of winning the Heineken European Cup after six years of constant disappointment will end up on the rubbish heap.

Harlequins, to be fair, toughed it out at Thomond Park on Saturday and were as dogged as their former captain Keith Wood predicted they would be. But they are a very limited side and having offered Munster the benefit of the wind and rain after winning the toss, should have been blown out of sight by the half time whistle.

Anthony Horgan and Denis Leamy underlined their current well-being with beautifully taken tries but there should have been at least as many more by the break. The anticipated bonus point didn't accrue in spite of a host of opportunities opening up and who knows how costly that could be at the end of the pool stage.

Blame the wind and rain if you like. There were quite a few bad breaks as well and the Welsh referee Hugh Watkins blew the whistle at the slightest threat of confrontation, thus preventing any degree of continuity. Throw in the commendable and unexpected resistance of the so-called 'fancy dans' from The Stoop and at least some of Munster's shortcomings on the day are more easily understood.

But that's enough excuses. Fact is that this is a much tougher pool than might have been originally imagined with Castres demolishing the Ospreys, the runaway Celtic League leaders on Saturday night. Now Munster head into the Welsh playground on Sunday. Will a repeat of Saturday's form be sufficient to leave St Helens with the desired result? I doubt it. The Ospreys have been rudely shocked out of their complacency and will be a dangerously wounded animal.

As a unit and one with a burning desire to put behind them the disappointments of the past, Munster must never be underestimated. But one is already fearful that the shortcomings that have seen them come up just short of the Holy Grail every year since 1999 have not been rectified.

Genuine midfield punch and penetration has rarely been there in that time. It's not there now either. Mike Mullins is being left to ply his trade in Division Two of the AIL. There's no place for newcomer James Storey. Presumably he's not deemed good enough for the top flight. Rob Henderson is inching his way back to his best although his style of play is easily read nowadays by any well-prepared opposition. Shaun Payne could provide some of the answers when he returns at 13 with John Kelly reverting to the wing.

And then there's Christian Cullen. Eight tries in the Celtic League and a visible improvement on his form of last season gave rise to the hope that he could inject the necessary level of pace and initiative to the back division. The jury is still out on this one.

There were a few signs of the undeniable class that has always been there but he also struggled in performing his elementary duties and the 'Quins tacklers were aware of the threat he poses just as will those of the Ospreys and Castres.

To emerge from this pool, I believe Munster will have to come up with a different game plan and that's the test facing Alan Gaffney and Brian Hickey and their backroom colleagues over the coming weeks.

"I'm delighted with the win, we never thought this was going to be a walk in the park," insisted Gaffney afterwards.

"They took the game to us and we committed a lot of errors, especially in the first fifteen minutes. We gave away four penalties in the first eight minutes and that's something we went out not to do. We were trying to build into the game, to develop continuity, but it was a very stop-start affair. We've got to develop continuity and momentum. The elements didn't suit us. We've got to eliminate a lot of the silly penalties.

"It wasn't a vintage performance, but I still think it will stand us in good stead. We didn't concede a try and defended very well so that's a huge positive. There are other areas which we've got to tighten up and we'll still be confident going over to the Ospreys. Parts of our game were fine.

"The boys had done a lot of work on their defence and 'Quins never really threatened our line but they could still have scored through a bad bounce of the ball or whatever. They built a lot of phases and we held them out but I was nervous at 15-9," admitted Gaffney.

It could have been 18-9 had Ronan O'Gara kicked for goal from a good position and not instead opted to chase a seven pointer. O'Gara himself and his captain Anthony Foley agreed that this was the better policy and Gaffney backed them.

But his Harlequins counterpart Mark Evans described it as "brainless", that the kick was a "gimme" for a player of O'Gara's ability and there were many Munster people who felt much the same way.

"Anthony made the decision for Rog to put the ball in the corner and the way the wind was blowing I totally agreed with that call because it would have been a very difficult kick", Gaffney explained.

Said O'Gara: "It probably was a kickable penalty but one of our greatest strengths has been our line-out five metres from the line and I think we'd back ourselves every time from there. That's the faith we have in the eight in front."

This time it was not justified. Quins defended the situation splendidly, Jeremy Staunton used the wind to boot his side back into Munster territory where a few decisions that Evans described as "the kind you can expect when you're playing away from home" frustrated their best efforts.

In the final analysis, their one real try scoring opportunity came ten minutes into the second half when the great-hearted Jim Williams somehow got across to put in a crushing last ditch tackle on flying 'Quins winger George Harder.

Notwithstanding this, Munster's line hardly look like falling defensively they have good reason to be satisfied with Saturday's performance. Individually, Foley was herculean and was man-of-the-match by a distance.

Paul O'Connell, Leamy and Williams all had big games but the scrum was a problem from the outset and it's an area that needs to be steadied down. O'Gara kicked well but was well-marshalled in his many attempts to break the gain line and to be honest that remark also applied to the remainder of the back-line.