O’Connell focused despite great expectations

THERE is a train of thought that Munster need only turn up and topple another French club at Thomond Park tomorrow but given the strong possibility that ASM Clermont Auvergne will field their strongest available XV, it’s unlikely to be a Munster cakewalk inside their favourite ground.

O’Connell focused despite great expectations

ASM aren’t about to roll over á la Bourgoin or Castres.

Last season ASM did themselves and the competition no favours by sending a make-shift side to Limerick, a judgement by their coach Vern Cotter that ultimately crippled the club’s chances of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup for the first time in its history.

It is, indeed, still surprising that a club blessed with so many talented individuals and one that came desperately close to winning the French Top 14 Championship last season, do at times display a lukewarm attitude towards the top European competition.

However, no matter what the composition of Cotter’s team, Munster are guarding against high expectations and will not be underestimating their opponents.

“Expectation can be a dangerous thing as we’ve seen with Ireland and New Zealand at the World Cup,” O’Connell warns. “It can be a good thing too — it puts you under pressure to perform — but it can be a dangerous thing as well.

“We’re still in a good position in the group by virtue of the bonus point we got; it puts us in a position where we’re comfortable.

“Now we know what we have to do. There’s no doubt we have to win the rest of our games. Our backs are to the wall now for the rest of the competition and sometimes, mentally, it can be a little bit easier because you know exactly what you have to do.”

While most teams would prefer not to have their backs against the wall at this stage of the competition, it’s a position from which O’Connell and his cohorts are most comfortable as evidenced in this competition over the last 10 seasons. Think last season, for example, heading into the crucial must-win Wasps match or the season of their first Heineken Cup triumph in 2006 when Munster succeeded in notching a bonus-point win over Sale Sharks. High-pressure situations tend to elicit the Reds’ most compelling displays.

“Some people will say it’s a bad attitude to have but it really clears the mind, it clarifies the thought process for us,” reasons O’Connell.

“We know we have to win the remaining pool games and every day we take the field we know we could be exiting the competition in 80 minutes unless we perform to the best of our ability.

“So it’s a position where you know exactly what you have to do.”

Since the inception of the Heineken Cup in 1995, Munster remain unbeaten against French clubs at Thomond Park and it’s a record they’ll go to the ends of the earth to protect ahead of what should be another seismic encounter against Cotter’s expensively assembled Top 14 side. O’Connell reckons Clermont will feel they can shatter that record especially after dominating Munster so impressively in that 20-minute period after half-time last Sunday.

“Declan (Kidney) used say we’re probably the team from Magners League who are on the telly the most and teams know us so well now, so Clermont will reckon they know us. And after their 20-minute spell will probably fancy themselves.

“It’s going to be very tough and as I said it’s backs-to-the-wall.”

He added: “Teams that raise their game against the champions is something we’ve been aware of for a long time. The fact that we won it two times in three years means we’re very much up there. It’s the same anywhere — you play the top teams in the Magners or the top teams in the English league they’re used to it so we have to get used to it as well.

“I’m not sure exactly why we let it slip in those 20 minutes after half time, I don’t think it had anything to do with them upping their game because they’re playing Munster, I think they realised that they were at home, it was a vital game for them to win.

“They were the championship minutes essentially, those 20 minutes after half time and they performed and reacted better.”

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