Where now for Munster?

WHEN we’re bad, we know how bad we can be.

Those words spoken at last week’s media conference by Paul O’Connell came back to haunt the Irish and Lions captain at Croke Park on Saturday.

For sure, Munster were bad but even in his worst dreams O’Connell could not have envisaged they would be that bad. There’s no taking anything away from the Leinster victory. They played with absolute assurance and self-belief not to mention considerable skill – whereas Munster dithered and dallied nervously and played like a well beaten team with a quarter of an hour or more still to play.

Michael Cheika’s men march on deservedly to the final and a clash with Leicester Tigers they should be fully capable of winning. Based on the courage and commitment displayed against Harlequins and Munster, they will take an awful lot of beating, provided, of course, that they don’t regard Saturday’s game as their final.

Cheika has a bit of a task on hand to drive that message home. In different circumstances, Munster would be celebrating the winning of the Magners League with two rounds of matches still to play but now there’s something of a hollow ring to that achievement, no matter how hard they worked for it throughout the season.

It shouldn’t be that way, of course, for as Leinster captain Leo Cullen stressed, it’s a very difficult trophy to get your hands on and obviously to do so, it is essential to have a large and talented squad and an ability to perform consistently for eight long months.

However, Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara both immediately answered “no” when asked if it served as any consolation for losing the Heineken Cup semi-final. As for coach Tony McGahan, he did manage to laud the squad for the Magners success while underlining that for Munster, “it’s all about the Heineken Cup”.

The postmortems have continued unabated since Saturday with some observers now rushing into word and print to tell us that at least a quarter of the Munster side are now at the end of their careers. Those primarily mentioned were Peter Stringer, John Hayes, Marcus Horan and Alan Quinlan although it is worth noting that some of those critics were praising the Munster team as one of the finest in the world after their quarter-final demolition of the Ospreys. Have they become a bad team in that short space of time? Of course not and while it will be far from easy, I believe they will hit back from this acute disappointment just as they did after a quarter-final flop in Llanelli in 2007. Twelve months later, they were crowned champions for the second time and this season they came through a particularly difficult qualifying group to reach the knock-out stages for the 11th successive year.

Equally, though, it would be folly to deny that this Munster team is growing old together. Hayes will be 36 next November, Horan 32 in September, Stringer 32 in December and Quinlan 35 in July. With the best will in the world, it’s difficult to see Hayes and Quinlan play on beyond next season, Horan and Stringer will hardly last a whole lot longer and much the same could be said of David Wallace, 33 in July and even Ronan O’Gara, 32 since March.

Furthermore, Rua Tipoki, Frankie Sheahan, Anthony Horgan and Federico Pucciariello, four magnificent servants, are among the many on their way at the end of the current season.

Given that their contracts are not being renewed, the management obviously believe that Kieran Lewis and John O’Sullivan are short of the required standard while their offer to Timmy Ryan wasn’t sufficient to keep him at home.

Doug Howlett’s contract ends at the end of next season and sooner or later Lifeimi Mafi will also be back in New Zealand. Whether or not these and the many other outstanding acquisitions from the Southern Hemisphere who came before them can be replaced is a matter for conjecture. Already there is well-founded speculation that Springbok centre Jean de Villiers could be a summer signing but he and others of the necessary standard won’t come cheaply. There are positives, of course, and certainly it is good to learn that the great hearted Mick O’Driscoll will be around for at least another two years. Of the younger brigade, there is the rich promise of Keith Earls, Tomás O’Leary, Denis Hurley, Barry Murphy and Donncha Ryan while there are several good years yet left in Jerry Flannery, Paul Warwick and Ian Dowling not to mention towering figures like Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Denis Leamy.

What looked a very rosy situation less than a month ago has suddenly darkened appreciably and Munster rugby may soon be confronted with many demanding questions.