Kiwi trio at home amongst Red legends
As they have been so many times this season, the centre pairing of Mafi and Tipoki were once again outstanding in both defence and attack, time and again stopped a Toulouse attack dead in its tracks with bone-crushing hits, gained precious yards with amazing footwork in the tightest situations.
Howlett also underlined himself a winger of the very highest calibre, voracious appetite for work on both sides of the ball. If only that try had stood, if only that final pass hadn’t been just those few inches forward, what a timeless talking-point world rugby would have had.
Much as Munster rugby fans have been taken with these three, however, they are even more impressed with Munster, with its fans especially. “I’ve never felt such positive energy,” said Tipoki. “I played against packed crowds in South Africa where they were all against you but this was a different atmosphere here, pretty special — takes your breath away. I feel on top of the world, can’t put it into words.”
So, from the view of an outsider who comes from a pretty clannish crowd himself, a proud Maori, what is this Munster magic, what is it that makes them so special? “I think it’s because they’re all home-grown players, they’re playing for their people, they don’t take anything for granted. And they recycle players into the system; you’ve got guys like Jim Williams, others around the fringes like our forwards coach Macca [Paul McCarthy], he played prop for Munster for years. There’s that ethos, the essence of being a Munster-man, that’s always there, it’s instilled in the young ones as they come through. It’s not a team where they buy in the best experts, they’re Munster through and through.”
As for Dougie Howlett, the legions of curly black-haired wigs among the red army in Cardiff speaks volumes for the affection in which he is already held. “It’s one thing to be watching it back home in New Zealand but to be here, running out in front of a packed Millennium, nearly all Munster fans, is something else.” Has he ever had an experience like it? “I have actually, I’ve played test matches here with the All-Blacks but we don’t quite get the reception we got today! It’s hard to put your finger on what Munster is but going out there and seeing the tens of thousands supporting us, and then they stayed after the game — that’s something special in world rugby. You watch it back home, it’s different on tv than it is when you’re here. I got my first taste of it against Clermont, away from home, all the red flags, you know then it’s big.”
Of course it isn’t just all New Zealand in this Munster backline of all the talents. Apart from Howlett’s disallowed try, several times they carved open the Toulouse defence, several times came within one pass of a finish; at the heart of much of that effort was young Kilkenny man Ian Dowling, learning all the time from the Kiwi three.
“The three boys are brilliant. I thought the try was legit, textbook Dougie, disappointing it wasn’t allowed. I feel I’ve come on so much, I feel I gave a lot more to this one today, contributed a lot more, rather than being a passenger — and I hate to use the word — but yeah, I was a passenger in 2006. This year I’m a lot happier with my game and a lot of the credit for that must go to the coaches.”
And that extraordinary support, does it create extra pressure? “Not at all, you feed off it. It was absolutely ridiculous, the scenes on the way in here, it was like we had already won the trophy. I saw about 10 Toulouse supporters on the way in, and I was thinking, ‘Jesus, Toulouse are going to get some land when they come into this.’ They’ve [fans] outdone themselves again, unbelievable.”
Yes, but it wasn’t just the fans who outdid themselves.
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