Five-point plan needed a five-star performance

I SHOULD have been surprised, but I’m not. In the wake of Munster’s narrow win over Montauban on Friday night in Thomond Park, a complaint I heard over and over again in the meditation centres I occasionally frequent was that Tony McGahan should never have mentioned the plan to collect five points.

“Our Declan would never have done that,” went the wisdom, and indeed I can envisage Mr Kidney’s renowned Buddha-like inscrutable smile on the many occasions when he was asked the very question that led to McGahan’s candid admission during last week’s press conference that yes, a bonus-point win, four tries, would be a realistic target for Munster against Montauban. Well, I agreed absolutely with McGahan.

I like Declan Kidney, enjoyed his press conferences even though nothing was ever really revealed. McGahan, though, despite his constant ‘Ah sure look at the huge budget they have and the tiny budget we have,’ line before all the big Heineken Cup outings, wasn’t one for forelock tugging. It was exactly the opposite; the old Irish attitude of accepting defeat before we started, of talking ourselves down, really grated on the new Irish coach, especially in the early days with Munster.

When the big wins finally began to flow, Kidney was the least surprised man in rugby; he knew he had real talent in the Munster players, he knew they were capable of holding their own with anyone. So, why the talk of rich Toulouse, rich Leicester, rich Stade Francais, and poor Munster? Realism, that’s all, realism, as he saw expectations beginning to run a little bit ahead of reality; and of course there was the little bit of psychology too. Expect Kidney to continue in that vein now with Ireland, because nationally we’re about where Munster were nine or ten years ago – good enough to threaten the best occasionally, but not good enough to win it all, not yet anyway.

That’s not the case with Munster anymore. Tony McGahan comes to us from Australia, where attitudes are a little different, in sport especially. In the land of Oz they don’t do humble, not in sport anyway. Since McGahan joined the Munster coaching staff in February 2006, Munster have won the Heineken Cup twice.

Like Kidney, McGahan knows the talent he has at his disposal; unlike Declan, however, Kidney has the Aussie attitude. Asked the question, then, no-one should have been surprised that there was never going to be any cute Cork hoor-ism. And yet we were. The reaction at the media briefing itself was disbelief, initially, then a little light humour. Even team captain Paul O’Connell, when it was his turn to take the podium after Tony had left, was a bit taken aback when informed of McGahan’s statement.

“Did he say that?” asked Paul, to general laughter. “Well he hasn’t said it to us!”

Get used to it. Munster are the reigning champions, they are the number-one ranked team of all time in the Heineken Cup competition, they were playing a lower mid-table French side which was making its debut Heineken Cup appearance, the game was in Thomond Park, it’s the new doubled-capacity stadium, bonus points are going to be critical in this group (as they were last season); the world and its mother knew Munster had to go for full points.

SO, IN Tony McGahan’s thinking, in my thinking, why not just say so, and get on with it? The problem Munster had last Friday night wasn’t that their new coach had advertised Munster’s ambition, it was that on a night when so much was expected of them, Munster fell flat. Did they show Montauban full respect? Looking at the way they repeatedly tried to run through the French side in the first-half, even from positions well inside their own 22, you’d have to say – no. They might have tried those tactics against Toulouse, or Wasps, but would they have persisted with them for so long, when – patently – they weren’t working? That much of the reason the tactics weren’t working was down to Munster themselves – unforced errors, penalties conceded – is beside the point; they weren’t working.

On the night that was in it, Munster should have gone to back to basics much sooner, did what Munster were always so expert at and gone for position first, then the tries. Much has changed in rugby union with the ELV’s, but the basics are still the basics – Munster went away from that, and thus allowed a very mediocre side to come within a whisker of becoming the biggest party-poopers in Munster’s rugby history.

Now, Munster have put themselves in a position where Sunday’s away game to Sale is a must-win game. Why? Because they are now behind the eight-ball in this group; dropped bonus point at home to Montauban – a point Sale will surely pick up – while the English side have picked up a full five points in their away win over Clermont-Auvergne.

I hope Tony McGahan continues to expound on his ambitions; I hope his players expand on theirs, but they must realise, the expansive game isn’t always the way. What’s wrong with fast and tight? [e-mail]