‘Miracle Match’ quartet on a mission
Nobody gave Munster a hope at Thomond Park in February 2002 when they needed to beat Gloucester to stay in the Heineken Cup by scoring four tries and by a margin of 27 points. The likelihood that the first part of the equation could be realised was thought to be so remote that few looked at the second requirement.
However, in winning 33-6 and, scoring four tries, they famously made it through to the knock-out stages and eventually to a controversial final defeat by Leicester Tigers in Cardiff.
Strange as it may seem, the demands on the Irish — and the other Munster men, John Hayes, Marcus Horan and Ronan O’Gara — in Paris on Sunday aren’t actually quite as great. They still need the bonus point for the four tries but don’t have to win by more than eight points. No big deal, really!
“I suppose it’s a similar situation, except you don’t have Thomond Park there for us”, O’Callaghan mused yesterday. “A lot of people have been referring to it, but this is different. The mindset wasn’t the same. Nobody talked about scoring four tries before the Gloucester game. We were more concerned with not losing.
“Remember all the talk about Gloucester knowing our moves, that they had given DVDs to all their players, that they knew us inside out. That galled us. And I also remember before the match they did a lap of the pitch and ran through our huddle, our warm-up area if you like, and that upset a few guys.
“I remember seeing Axel’s (Anthony Foley) face and just knew we weren’t going to lose that day. The way fellas stood up, Micko, Mossie, Jason Holland for those great kicks into the corner, stuff like that. Hopefully it will be the same this weekend.
“You look at the clips and I’m jumping around like a lunatic with Jim Williams and the supporters as it begins to dawn that we had done it. We hadn’t expected to go through, we just wanted to give a performance we could be proud of. If we do that on Sunday, we will go a long way towards getting back some of the respect that we’ve lost.”
The mantra in the Irish camp all week has been to stress that first and foremost they must win this game. However, the reality is that they are out of the World Cup unless they do so by also scoring four tries. If they do that a winning margin of eight points or more should go hand in hand.
The Miracle Match quartet, not to mention other squad members like Peter Stringer, Frankie Sheahan and Alan Quinlan, plus Denis Leamy, who was a substitute that day, will be doing all they can to imbue a similar kind of spirit against the Pumas.
Interestingly, they also have a player in their side who was involved at Thomond Park in 2002. Marcus Horan will be renewing hostilities with the formidable Stade Francais tight head prop Rodrigo Roncero who, no doubt, won’t be slow to remind his team-mates that these results can actually happen and to take nothing for granted.
“As players, all we can look at is to give as good a performance as we possibly can”, said O’Callaghan.
“We have under-performed for all the talent we have in the team, for the amount of training that has been put into us, we know we have under-performed. So it comes down to giving a performance and if something comes of that, that would be great.”
This is a second World Cup for the 28-year-old O’Callaghan. And, in spite of the disappointing run of results and the rumours and innuendo that have dogged the squad, he insists that he has enjoyed the experience.
“It’s the showcase of your career and I don’t think I’ll get the chance of playing in another.
“You can never look too far down the line. This is a great opportunity and we’ve got to go out and take it. I doubt if I’ll be lucky enough to ever again be in a dressing room with such a talented group so this is our chance, this is our shot.
“We’ve been getting a kick out of all the stupid rumours. Frankie and Brian Carney are witty guys at the top of our bus, doling out the fines for guys being late and things like that. They’ve got great mileage out of the rumours that have been going around. But, to be honest, it was a bit of a distraction last week when terrible things were being said about your friends.
Rog (Ronan O’Gara) has said what he has to say about the whole affair and I’m not going to give it any more air time”
David Wallace missed that Miracle Match through injury, but he also believes Ireland can use Munster’s Heineken Cup heroics to inspire them to World Cup victory against the odds.
“It’s very much a mind-set that you have to have — that it’s do or die. We will use that to go out — first of all to win the game, and then build from there.”
Ireland may have to be patient, however.
“The first thing those games taught us is not to panic — because a lot of those tries came very late on,” Wallace recalled.
“It’s something which we have seen in this World Cup — when Argentina scored very late on to get their bonus point against Georgia.
“Basically you have got to go toe-to-toe for the whole game and wear a team down before you get the tries. That’s something we have got to work on and bring into the game on Sunday. If we can get our defence right and go out with the right attitude in attack and cut out the silly mistakes and discipline errors, we are certainly on the right road.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
