Can Munster do it without a gasman?

“Welcome to Twickenham, an extension of The Stoop today,” boomed the excited PA announcer, as the countdown began to Saturday’s crucial final-round pool game. He was wrong.

With the red-clad visiting fans outnumbering the home support about two to one, Twickenham was an extension of Thomond Park. And with such colossal and unprecedented on-the-road support, the stage was set for Munster to do something special.

Didn’t happen. Munster did win, did top the group, did qualify for yet another quarter-final; they did not impress. Gas - that was the little big word on everyone’s lips afterwards. Munster have so much going for them, in every facet of the modern pro rugby game, but they don’t have gas, real gas, the kind demonstrated so graphically by Ugo Monye’s 85 metre intercept try, when all of Munster was left trailing forlornly in his wake.

“There’s no substitute for pace,” admitted out-half Paul Burke. “We’ve got quality wingers, (but) we all know Ugo’s pace, he’s an asset to any team he’s in. Give him a yard, and he’ll take it, that’s one of the major strengths in his game. He would slot into any team - in the sense that when you’ve got a gas-man with the amount of gas he’s got, he’s going to cause problems.”

This has been Munster’s Achilles heel since they first made an impact in this competition. They have the pack, the half-backs, solid defence, solid attackers behind the pack with occasional flashes of brilliance. But, and it was on the lips of everyone again in Twickenham after this game, Harlequins management and players, Munster management and players, both sets of fans, the tv analysts, the birds in the air, the dogs in the street. Munster, good team, no gas.

But linger a moment. Where exactly is it stated that to win big rugby games, yes, even in the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup, even on what will be much faster pitches, you need world-class pace? Like Monye, he of the 10.6-second 100m pace. What does Ugo think? Can this Munster team, as is, go on to win what Shaun Payne calls THE Cup?

“They’ve been there or thereabouts for the last four or five years, showed again here that they can win without that extra gas out wide. With a forward pack that good, with two out-halves of the quality of O’Gara and Burke, whichever of them plays, they have quality all over the place.”

What, Ugo, they don’t need someone like yourself on the wing? “No, I think they play a game that suits the players they have. Whether they had more gas or not is neither here nor there, they’ve got a very good pack, they use that to their advantage all the time. They play their game very well.”

One of the ironies of this game of course is that even as that much-maligned Munster back-line lined up for the kick-off, facing them in the famous Quins court-jester jersey were four Irish men, with a fifth, Jeremy Staunton, former Munster hero, coming on in the second half.

All impressed, but none more so than inside-centre Mel Deane. What was his take on Munster? “They are very resilient; they normally gain momentum as the tournament progresses, so this wasn’t a typical game for them. But I wouldn’t bet against them, ever. There’s a great history behind them.”

But what of those backs, all those deficiencies with ball in hand? “I didn’t think there was too much deficiency, they didn’t get too much ball out (wide). We tried to slow everything down, and we succeeded, so that when they did get the ball out, we had people out there to tackle them. If they had managed to quicken it up, we’d be in trouble, and that happened a couple of times in the first half, but we managed to scramble back. If they can solve that, quicken things up, they’ll tear people apart.”

Deane - the former Connacht stand-out would have seemed made to measure for Munster and wouldn’t turn down the opportunity either, should all the moons line up. With Rob Henderson coming back to his best however, inside centre is not where Munster need help, if they’re to match the champagne rugby of the French and Premiership sides.

So where Munster are good, they are very good; where they’re poor, well, are they really as bad as everyone says? Cullen, Payne, Hendo, Mullins (still slashing well at 34), Horgan, with John Kelly still to return, Ronan O’Gara calling the shots?

How bad, how bad indeed.