Munster needruthless streak to realise Cup dream

Another year, another crushing defeat. While Munster limped away from a gut wrenching loss, the feeling remained that this competition is becoming even harder to win.

The step up in standard from the pool stages to that of the semi-final is huge.

Nobody has contributed more to the development of this competition than the Munster team and their extraordinary band of supporters.

Speaking to Rob Howley over the weekend, he was flabbergasted with the passion and colour of the home following around Ballsbridge in the build up to the game. This, coming from a man born and reared in the heart of Welsh rugby, is saying something.

When one looks back over Munster’s semi-final and final appearances over the past few seasons, it is clear that the English sides in particular are prepared to do whatever is necessary to win. When it comes to playing the referee, unfortunately they are still far more streetwise than our players.

Two years ago, in Cardiff, when defending a narrow lead, Neil Back was prepared to take a calculated risk in order to prevent a potential winning score for Munster. Whether Munster would have scored from “that” scrum is something we will never know.

What we do know is that Back was prepared to gamble. He was also prepared to suffer the consequences.

Last Sunday, we saw further evidence of a team that was willing to play on the edge. At international level particularly, I always believed that you played to what you would get away with. Wasps adopted a similar approach.

Lawrence Dallaglio’s style may not endear him to everybody, but not unlike former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick and Martin Johnson before him, he influences referees.

In the opening quarter of the game, there were at least two occasions when Dallaglio made no attempt to roll away from the tackle area. This had the effect of slowing down the quality of Munster’s possession. In those vital few seconds, Wasps were presented with the opportunity of restructuring their defensive line. As a result, Munster were prohibited from generating any serious momentum.

Dallaglio’s indiscretions were of a more serious nature than that which resulted in the sin-binning of Donncha O’Callaghan. That decision had a major bearing on the outcome of the game.

In case somebody thinks that this is sour grapes, it is far from it. I am merely pointing to the fact that if Munster wish to fulfil their dream of securing the Heineken Cup, then they must be prepared to approach the game with the ruthlessness of their English counterparts.

The other area that needs to be seriously addressed is Munster’s structure and organisation in defence. The post match statistics revealed that Munster missed 28 tackles throughout the course of the game. Taken in isolation, this fact alone would render it impossible to win a contest of this nature. That Munster finished the game within five points of Wasps is a singular tribute under those circumstances.

Defensive lapses have been responsible for the concession of nine tries in the last two games. While Munster succeeded in scoring four outstanding tries against Stade Francais in the quarter-final, the aggressiveness of the Wasps defence meant that tries were always going to be harder to come by on Sunday.

Throughout the course of the competition, one of Munster’s principal means of scoring five pointers was their driving maul from five metre lineouts. On two occasions in the second-half, Munster opted for this tactic rather than kick for goal.

Where they had succeeded against both Gloucester and Bourgoin in the pool stages, Munster failed due to the aggressiveness of the Wasps defence on the ground.

Many people have expressed the view that Wasps looked stronger and fitter in the last 10 minutes of the game. While I am well aware that former Irish fitness coach Craig White has done an outstanding job in this department with Wasps, I feel that the handicap of performing with 14 players for the last seventeen minutes took its toll psychologically.

Munster’s failure to find touch on three crucial occasions also proved very costly. The first resulted in O’Callaghan’s yellow card, the second in a penalty, which reduced the gap to three points, and the third to Wasps equalising try.

Yet, despite all this, Trevor Leota’s match winner was only scored deep into injury time. Under those circumstances, this was another extraordinary performance from Munster.

Make no mistake, Wasps are an outstanding side. They have pummelled a number of high quality teams in England this year. Johnny O’Connor must be one outstanding player if he is able to keep Paul Volley out of this side. While the Munster players and management will be hugely disappointed with yet another narrow defeat, it is vital that the lessons of the past five seasons are absorbed and utilised as the catalyst to go on and win the competition.

For me, my abiding memory of the character within this team was summed up in their response to the concession of Van Gisbergen’s try in the opening minute of the second-half.

That score would have killed off a lesser team. For this group, it merely inspired them to score another 17 unanswered points. Unfortunately in the end it just wasn’t enough.