New focus for Munster’s ‘old man’

WHILE the rest of the country was watching Ireland limp to a dismal Six Nations finish, Rua Tipoki impatiently kicked his heels.

Like the rest of Munster’s foreign legion, he had to find other things to occupy his time as the Magners League ground to a near-halt to accommodate the internationals.

But he had more reason than most to be champing at the bit for game time. A recurrence of an old back injury suffered against Edinburgh six weeks ago meant that until recently, he couldn’t even get out on the squash court, let alone a rugby pitch.

“Obviously we’ve all got families, so that gives us a chance to get away from the game,” he explains. “I didn’t mind the first couple of weeks off (after the injury) but it started doing my head in after that. The deadline was approaching and I knew I had to get out there and get running to be back in contention.”

To compound his frustration, an old nickname from his native New Zealand has come back to haunt him.

“(Lifeimi) Mafi and (Jeremy) Manning have taken to calling me ‘koro’, which is the Maori word for ‘old man’, because of the back injury,” he smiles ruefully. “I have to put that one to bed, I thought I’d left that one behind when I left New Zealand but it’s followed me over somehow.”

In the Munster dressing-room, no-one is safe. Just ask record All Black try-scorer Doug Howlett, who initially had to put up with japes about his post-World Cup drunken episode at Heathrow, where he caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to a couple of cars.

Tipoki has taken his fair share of ribbing too, mostly relating to the YouTube footage of the off-the-ball incidents that saw him receive a record Super 14 ban of 16 weeks.

But fears that Munster had signed a new midfield ‘enforcer’ with a discipline problem have been allayed by a series of composed displays from the former New Zealand Maori captain.

And having come through a substitute appearance against Connacht in Galway last week, he can’t wait to resume his centre partnership with compatriot Mafi if called upon for Saturday’s crunch Heineken Cup clash with Gloucester.

Their contribution to the rejuvenation of Munster’s back play has been encapsulated in a fans’ tune that goes along the lines of “You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, do the Mafi and Tipoki and you shake it all about”.

Tipoki is surprised to learn of this, but it’s more evidence that he made the right choice coming to Munster.

“Mafi and I travel to Limerick a couple of times a week together, and in the car on the way up and back, there’s pretty much nothing else to talk about apart from the kids, and what we’re going to do at training and on the pitch,” he explains.

“Normally, it takes seasons to develop combinations, but when you’re together for huge parts of the day you build up trust. He tells me about things I might need to tweak and I trust his advice.”

Having seen him in action alongside Mafi, Munster fans are now waiting for better weather, a dryer track and the chance for Tipoki to align with Howlett, resuming a relationship fostered at Auckland Blues. He admits the biggest adjustment the duo have had to make is jumping from one competition to another, week after week.

“We’d heard of the difference in intensity between the Heineken Cup and the Magners League,” he says. “But we couldn’t grasp it because back home, the competitions are separate and you give your all to each one at a time, it’s not like you’re bouncing from Super 14 to the NPC. It has definitely hit home that there’s a lot more at stake this weekend.”

Tipoki has heard of the previous between these two sides, from the double-score defeats for Munster at Kingsholm to the miracle match in Limerick in 2003. But he insists he will be firmly focusing on his own game, rather than occupying his mind with history.

“After the game the other night, I said to myself that I need to eliminate as many outside factors as I can. Having been out for so long I have to concentrate on myself. I’d normally like to have a bit of input into defensive patterns and the like, but I’ll take a back seat this week and focus on being accurate and nailing down everything I’m told to. I want to go into this week with a positive mindset.”

He has also heard of the province’s history of grinding out away wins at inhospitable venues. Tipoki was on the losing side at Wasps and Clermont in the pool stages, but the latter showed him everything he needed to know about the famed Munster spirit, as they fought back to collect the bonus point that ultimately secured their progress.

“In that game, the attitude was that we weren’t going to lie down and let them kick the s**t out of us,” he explains.

“Rog (O’Gara) epitomised that when the guy stepped on his head. His ear was ripped to bits but he came back on, I just thought ‘Jesus, he’s a tough bugger’. I saw his ear after the game and thought ‘F**k, I’d have been off there’ — but he just taped it up.

“I had so much respect for him after that, there’s not much of him there but you see the mental toughness of him, you saw it in the whole team that day. A lot of teams would have bowed out but the lads hung on. In the big games, both teams will have the firepower and the talent, it comes down to who wants it more.”

With many of the side returning dejected from a disastrous World Cup campaign, Tipoki accepts that he needed some convincing of the famed Munster bloody-mindedness when he first arrived. But now he’s a believer, and he has Gloucester in his sights.

“I wasn’t sure if the hunger was there to start with,” he admits. “But obviously the guys have needed their time back to settle in after the World Cup and it’s there now, they want it alright.

“They’re in the same boat as the rest of us now and there’s no other agenda, that’s the mindset. We’ve got to leave it all out there on Saturday.”