Rugby: Alan’s cup of plenty

ALAN GAFFNEY is enjoying rugby life with Munster. The mercury may be at a lower setting than anything he experienced during a Sydney January, but the passion for rugby is just as high.

So too is the expectation. Which makes the affable Australian acutely aware of the downward pressure that could be exerted on his neck should Munster fail to sparkle over the next two weeks of their latest Heineken Cup quest.

He has another 18 months to run on his contract and would like to stay beyond that deadline. Whether he does or not will be determined by his ability to steer his side past Gloucester once again and into the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup and preferably beyond.

"The minimum has to be to make the knock-out stages," he admits candidly. "The Celtic League has been disappointing and although we're not out of it, successfully defending it is not very likely. The emphasis, of course, is on the Heineken Cup.

"The harsh reality of professional rugby is that you can go out there and play good rugby but if you don't win ... c'est la vie."

It's a nice philosophical approach typical of a courteous man whose relaxed exterior hides the kind of burning desire associated with all Australians.

Any side hoping to reach the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup needs to win all of their home games and try to pinch something on their travels. That's the perception of just about every coach in the competition. Given that he has met both requirements so far, it is hardly surprising that Gaffney agrees.

But why should it be so difficult for a team as experienced as Munster to make the short journey to Gloucester and leave Kingsholm with both points?

"Whether it's the travel, being away from home, part of going over there on Thursday and sitting in a hotel room, thinking of things to do," he muses.

"No, you'd much prefer to be in your own bed. The players are doing a lot of travel now and in one sense they should be used to it but on the other, it's a pain being away as often as they are.

"Like Lanzarote the week before Christmas, they didn't want to be there, they wanted to be at home."

There was some light relief for the Lanzarote contingent as soon as they arrived back. The entire Munster squad got together for a Christmas bash in Waterford. But just how far are they allowed to go when Mr Gaffney and his assistants are looking on!

"I join in and have a few beers myself," he grins. "They're all professionals but they also have a few beers. You talk to medical people all around the world and they insist you shouldn't do it. But psychologically, I think it does wonders for them to let their hair down after being in camp.

"Some of them will have hardly anything, if anything at all; others will have three, four, five. They're grown men.

"They train hard enough and are entitled to a drink now and then. I trust them. Matt Williams used to put an embargo on the Leinster players. I don't think you can do that because the players are going to have a drink anyway. It's better that you know they're having it and controlling it. It doesn't worry me at all."

What does worry him is the record book and Munster's humbling 35-16 defeat at Gloucester last year. It was the visitors first match of that Heineken Cup campaign and on reflection, Gaffney accepts that his side weren't ready for the challenge. But he doesn't shirk his share of the responsibility.

"We went to Gloucester not quite knowing what to expect," he concedes. "I take some of the blame. We decided to do certain things, tactical things, which didn't work. We didn't have enough information on them.

"We knew they were a handy side but we paid them too much credit. We got to 12-9 at half-time running with a slight wind but we just didn't play in the second-half when we hardly had the ball. They scored three tries into the wind and we hardly got into their territory.

"We played a few games badly last year with the wind. Perpignan over in Perpignan was another case in point. The wind is never going to win a game for you, you've still got to go out and play."

Twelve months, with talk of revenge hanging in the air, Gaffney doesn't worry about the reputation of Kingsholm's famous Shed and its fanatical cherry and white bedecked fans. Or at least he doesn't show it.

"They are a pretty jovial crowd. The Kingsholm atmosphere isn't something the players will shy away from. I think they enjoy it.

"They were fair over there, applauded things that we did well. That experience will stand to us now. They've lost a few good players in Osam and Mercier but they have replaced them, and of course Duncan McRae is now at out-half."

There lies one of the most intriguing sub-plots of all in the Munster-Gloucester rivalry. It was McRae who launched a serious and unprovoked attack on Ronan O'Gara during the Lions tour of Australia in 2001.

For Gaffney, though, it's an unwelcome distraction, not least because he knew and liked McRae long before he ever met O'Gara!

"I've known Duncan for 15 years, he went to the same school as I did although obviously a good few years after me," he smiles.

"He was a very good schoolboy player but signed a Rugby League contract. He came into Rugby Union around 1999/'98, when I was with Matt Williams at the Waratahs. What happened with Ronan was very much out of character for the boy.

"I arrived in Ireland on the morning that game was played. I was driven straight from the airport to Kiely's in Donnybrook and watched it there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I doubt he has any excuse for what happened. He has made some apologies recently but he probably should have done that at the time."

Gaffney though is keen for the issue to be put to rest before the serious business of rugby begins.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's dead and buried," he declared. "Obviously, people will try and re-ignite it. Ronan?

"Well, he has never mentioned it to me. It might be in the back of some players' minds but it will not be brought up in any discussions, at least not by me. We've got to go out and beat Gloucester and whatever happens to McRae is not high on my list of priorities.

"Winning in Gloucester is the absolute prime and we've got to stay controlled and focused on what we are doing and not have peripheral things getting in the way."

HOWEVER, there are some matters over which he has no control. He admits the team wasn't as well prepared as it should have been last year and now he's afraid of something similar happening on this occasion.

The provincial coaches said little publicly about last week's two-day Irish squad session at City West but inwardly they were far from happy.

Gaffney brought his men to Athlone last Friday night without a preparatory get together and made the best, "of what was thrust upon us at a fairly late time.

And then to give us two sessions preparation for Gloucester makes for a fairly difficult task. I would love to have played again last week. Coming from Cardiff, then Bourgoin and Treviso, I felt we were doing a lot of things very well and were on a roll.

"That was the first time we had them for three weeks since April and would love to have kept going. Now they're coming off national camp and it's like starting all over again.

"This is not an excuse because we have some very good players who adapt very quickly. However, in contrast, Gloucester played Leeds, Harlequins and Leicester over the past three weeks."

And then there's the question of the Heineken Cup itself. Munster people can't get enough of it in stark comparison to their Leinster counterparts. "It seems to me that Leinster are a Friday night crowd and Donnybrook is a great place to go," Gaffney who was assistant coach to Leinster muses.

"I want to say this in a nice way, and I know it's a buzz word, but it's a yuppie crowd that goes there. It's a Friday night experience at Donnybrook. Packing everything up and going to Lansdowne Road on a Saturday afternoon when there's a lot of other things on, may not be in their psyche."

Which led us nicely into discussing whether he was glad at having made the move from the bright lights of Dublin to the distinctly less glamorous but far more rugby orientated city of Limerick.

He doesn't hesitate.

"I like Dublin and Leinster but I love everything that happens down here. The players are a great bunch of guys as were the Leinster players but obviously they're different. I suppose they come from different walks of life. I came from a working class background. D4 is slightly different from Limerick.

"I've been treated very well down here. There's great craic, they have their fun but they know when they have to be sincere. I'm enjoying it. Obviously, the IRFU are developing coaches of their own and that has to happen. But I've a year and a half to go on my contract and would love to stay."