Scrapping for the bonus boost

NO matter what your sporting preference, the television pictures from venues across Europe last weekend portrayed the same images, driving wind and lashing rain. The weather conditions that prevail at this time of year do different things to different teams. Usually it has the effect of closing the gap between the good and the not so good.

Then there are teams with an ability to cope with anything thrown at them. Champion sides have the capacity to adapt their game to cater not only for the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition but the conditions in which they perform. It is quite encouraging therefore that Munster’s two best performances this season were delivered away from the comforts and security of their home and on contrasting surfaces — at Wasps and Llanelli Scarlets.

If the defeat to Leinster in appalling conditions at Musgrave Park suggested Munster were now a side more at home on a dry track, their display in west Wales last Saturday firmly buried that theory.