McGahan keen to avoid ‘B’ word

IT would be harsh to blame Munster coach Tony McGahan if ‘bonus’ was the last word he wanted to hear in the build-up to tomorrow’s Heineken Cup tie against Montauban.

When I asked him prior to the first meeting of the sides last October whether he thought the game afforded Munster the chance of a bonus point, McGahan provided a straight and what appeared at the time to be an honest appraisal of the situation. After all, Montauban were playing their very first game in the Heineken Cup and were doing so at Thomond Park, the famous home fortress of the defending champions. Nobody, but nobody, gave them a chance.

McGahan’s reply to the question was: “We need to set a standard this weekend and to play our best rugby of the season and if we do that, then we’re very confident of getting the bonus. We need to be bolder in our approach and to knock the game into shape in the first 30 minutes. First of all we need to win the game but this is an opportunity to get five points, especially if the conditions are favourable.”

For 24 hours or so, everything was fine. The journalists present reported McGahan’s words accurately. But others then chose to read cockiness and over-confidence into what he had to say and to some, it appeared as if the Aussiehad got ahead of himself. That view gained further momentum when Munster had to rely on a late Ronan O’Gara to scrape home by 19-17.

And the bonus point? They were lucky to get one try not to mention four. But that wasn’t McGahan’s fault, rather the players failed to “set a standard and play our best rugby of the season” or “to knock the game into shape in the first 30 minutes”.

In fairness, they since seem to have learned that you need to subdue decent opposition in the opening half or thereabout before spreading the ball wide so, in hindsight, that Montauban game may have served as a blessing in disguise.

Ironically, the question of a bonus has reared its head again this week. If Munster manage four tries or more tomorrow they will trot out in the quarter-finals at Thomond Park on the second weekend in April. A simple win might also do the trick for a home game but that will depend on how other matches go over the weekend. Lose and they will definitely be on their travels. So it was a little akin to walking on eggshells when the ‘B’ word was raised yesterday at Thomond Park.

“We said after the Sale game that our biggest challenge was going to be able to put back-to-back performances together which we have been unable to achieve so far this year”, said McGahan. “The players are very motivated to finish off this campaign off very well. Most of them will be off to the Six Nations and the group will split up so it is very important that we maintain focus. The players certainly know what’s at stake.”

With the exception of Rua Tipoki and Tony Buckley, ruled out respectively by injury and illness, Munster will pick from a full deck although it is a virtual certainty that the 22 players who took Sale Sharks apart a week ago will be retained en masse and that the fringe players will have to wait a little longer for a chance.

McGahan and his Montauban counterpart Laurent Labit will announce their teams at lunchtime today.