Rugby: String it on

PETER Stringer's normally pallid complexion is crimson. He, Frankie Sheahan and Donncha O'Callaghan have arrived at a fundraiser for the Cork Simon Community thinking they would simply have to do a little pressing of the flesh and a little chit-chat.

A normal goodwill gig.

However, confronted by a hall full of about 300 women, many of whose tongues have been loosened by a little lunchtime wine, certain bold comments are being made about physique, muscle, conditioning and so forth.

Our brave heroes have been inveigled into handing out carnations to each and every lady in the hall and their egos are not the only things being tweaked as they progress through the massed ranks.

"Jaysus, that was as tough as any training session we've done this season," the diminutive scrum-half recounts later. Coping manfully with some of the demands for their personal attention, the boys eventually escape, exploding with laughter as they recall some of the more risqué proposals put to them.

But then, it's only days away from Munster's biggest game of the year and a little light relief always helps to divert attention. "If it was only tickets they were after, it mightn't have been too bad," Stringer giggles.

But whatever fear was experienced, it was a different fear to that which Gloucester put into them last Saturday at Kingsholm when, for the second year running, the Zurich Premiership side embarrassed Munster into their worst performance of the season.

Now, once more, it is back to Thomond Park for a season-defining match which could determine whether or not Munster make it through to the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup for the sixth year on the trot.

And, like last year, Peter Stringer is not even thinking of what defeat might mean. Munster now have a job to do and Stringer, for one, intends to get it done.

Last year to qualify for the quarter-finals, Gloucester did not even need to win in Limerick, merely to stay in touch. This time around again Munster have to win. Last year the possibility of Munster making it through seemed as remote as that of Liverpool winning the Champions League.

But, make it through they did and, in one of the most historic and unbelievable matches ever played at Thomond, they qualified for the quarter finals.

This time around the necessary exactitude of the victory it was four tries and a 27 point margin last year is not so clear cut, but for the Munster lads the necessity to win is now no less great.

Stringer recalls last year's circumstances with an understandable degree of clarity. "We would have been confident going there last year because of our experiences in the Heineken Cup and winning in places like France and England.

"Gloucester at the time were top of the Premiership and were the best team in England. They were going really well and I suppose much like last Saturday it proved to be one of our most difficult games.

"It rarely happens to Munster that we are on the back foot and halfway through the game I was thinking: 'this doesn't happen to us.'

"Even the whole atmosphere of Kingsholm was different to anything we'd encountered in England before, what with The Shed and all that.

"It was more like a Thomond Park game than anything else. It was awakening for us in many ways and it enlightened us as to what to expect in the return game. I remember coming off the pitch and thinking that if this sort of thing continued, we'd be out of the European Cup.

"Not even qualifying for the quarter-finals was kinda unthinkable. It was the end of January and when you're used to competing right up until May, then the thoughts of finishing up in January is just too much especially for the guys who are not involved in the Six Nations squad.

"We've been in the quarter-finals every year since I started playing with Munster. Since 1998 or so, we'd been there every year and I suppose there's a sort of natural expectation because of the success we'd had. On that day though, they played us with a style we were not familiar with.

"They liked to play wide, attack and keep the ball on the touchlines and that was something new for us. That was a pattern Nigel Melville had them using all last season and it worked well for them. Indeed, it still is. But for us it was something new and it was a bit of a shock on the day. Credit to them they deserved to win that day."

Many would say they deserved the win last Saturday just as much, but last year there was a much greater collective shock at the way they had been dismantled. The supporters certainly didn't expect what they saw.

"Coming back to Thomond Park was a weird situation," Stringer recalls, "because we knew we had to win and win by a certain number of points. I have to say though that it was never drilled into us during the course of the week beforehand, how many tries we had to score or how many points we had to win by.

"It was simply a matter of going out and trying to win the game first. I think that if we went out and set a target that we had to score five tries, or something, then that would not have been realistic against the best side in England.

"Alan Gaffney, in fairness, spent the week telling us: 'get the process right and the result will come.' If we had gone in thinking we had to score a try here and a try there, it would not have happened.

"It just doesn't work like that. You have to take it minute by minute, concentrating on your rucks, your line outs everything. You have to try and keep the ball and create chances to score tries and that's how we went about it.

"We got two scores before half-time and going out for the second half the guys kinda really, really, really believed that something was going to happen.

"We had played well in the first half and absorbed a lot of pressure. They had two chances in the first half from line outs close to our line and we kept them at bay and to keep them scoreless in those circumstances was something special.

"And then at the end, even to this day Ronan (O'Gara) says that none of us including him realised that his kick at the end was so vital to give us the winning margin we needed.

"Not too many people realised exactly what the situation was, even the public, and I got the impression from speaking to fans afterwards that they did not actually believe we could do it.

"I've watched the game since and listened to the commentary and they didn't even know what was going on at the end.

"So, I think Alan Gaffney deserves credit for keeping that sort of fine detail out of the main focus in the build up. It was a very weird situation unbelievable almost. It was one of those days we had a few memorable ones but this was certainly one to remember.

"We went up to the stand after the game and crowd stayed on the pitch and it was just...remarkable really. Personally, I love that and I would have gladly stayed out there with them. I'd love to do a lap of honour after every game just to get that special feeling.

"You get a great feeling inside when you hear people singing in unison and knowing it's for you. I love that part of it. That's why we do it. When people recognise you're doing something special and they respond, you know you're affecting a lot of people and it is an incredible experience."

"It gets you inside when you hear stories of people and how far they travelled to see you and things like that especially when it can cost them four or five hundred Euro for a day trip and we do recognise that and we try and have as many public sessions and to meet as many people as we can as often as we can in order to try and pay it back."

The Munster players know that this coming Saturday is payback time for the supporters and that like last year they have to beat the odds and defeat Gloucester to continue their interest in the tournament. And Stringer is no different, but the will to win oozes from every pore and the determination to succeed is palpable.

"You put your heart and soul into it because you know you're not going to have it forever. But you do learn to appreciate it and you learn to want more of it because the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup is about as big as it gets after World Cups and Six Nations games.

"It really hits home when guys retire and you know they have to leave all this behind them and you realise too that you won't have it forever.

"But to get to the knock-out stages we're going to have to beat Gloucester and we will be putting our heart and soul into trying to do that.

"Playing for Ireland is obviously important, and there is no greater honour, but in the Munster set up it is different because these are guys who you've sent you life growing up with, you train with them every single day, you live near them and you just do everything together."

THIS 'Band of Brothers' ethos has stood Munster well over the past six years and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

As Stringer says though, the disparity between the quality of a performance one week and the next, can be completely "baffling" and that certainly was the case with Munster and Gloucester last year much in the same way it was for the Irish national team in the World Cup when they so nearly beat Australia one week and then completely capitulated to France the next.

"You have to try and learn from these experiences especially in a pressure situation where you're thinking on your feet and trying to analyse exactly what is going on. That is when you need guys to step up to the plate to try and rectify a situation."

Well, yet again Munster find themselves looking to their players to step up to the plate to try and pull a difficult situation around and come through. But then, they're used to this pressure, this is what they live for and this is what they thrive on.

It's hard to reconcile then, when they live and breathe the expectations of so many and execute those dreams on the field, that they could be thrown completely out of kilter by a bunch of mammies at a charity fundraiser. Strange world indeed.