Barnes: Crazy to write off under-fire Munster
Former England international and Lion, Barnes acknowledged that Munster’s opening game in the tournament, away to Northampton, will be difficult but he added that Munster’s battling reputation means it would be “mad” to write them off.
“They’ve earned that reputation, haven’t they?” said Barnes. “There will be people in Europe who’ll look at last weekend’s scoreline and say ‘that’s the end of Munster’.
“They’d be mad – in the same way that it would have been mad to say that of Leinster when Munster beat them comfortably twice. You have to consider Munster’s record, and I’ve seen games in my 35 years watching and broadcasting where 30-0 scorelines have been turned around.”
Barnes was speaking ahead of the launch of Irish Examiner rugby correspondent Barry Coughlan’s “Rags to Riches: The Story of Munster Rugby” last night. Looking forward to the opening weekend of Heineken Cup action, he backed Munster against the Saints this Saturday.
“I still think they’re favourites against Northampton. It will be very difficult, and fascinating to see how they perform, but one bad defeat doesn’t make a bad team.
“But if they were to lose 20-6 at Franklin’s Gardens, say, then the game against Perpignan two weeks after that... you could almost argue that Munster’s season would depend on that game, outside the Magners League.
“‘Fascinating’ wouldn’t be the word being used in Munster, but it is for the rest of Europe. It’s an acid test for this group of players, because they’ve been very good at grinding out games. Now the boot’s on the other foot and we have to see what Paul O’Connell, Ronan O’Gara and company come up with when expectations are against them, if you like.
“Northampton away is a very tough game for Munster. If you asked who the two best teams in England are right now you’d say Northampton and London Irish, and if Munster lose this, after a 30-0 last weekend, then all their fabled ability to come back after a crisis will be tested to the full – especially with Perpignan in this group as well.”
Barnes added that Leinster’s win last Saturday in the RDS – and their first Heineken Cup title last season – meant opponents around Europe now had the same regard for the province in blue that they had for Munster.
“It sets it up for everyone outside Munster,” says Barnes.
“I’m more interested in this game against Northampton than in any other Munster game apart from the finals because for the last three years Munster have taken something of a psychological grip – winning two finals and being red-hot favourites before last year’s semi-final.
“Teams were looking at them and wondering, ‘how do we beat them?’, but now Leinster have given them such a mugging that Munster now have to get themselves up for the tournament – and people are looking at Leinster and thinking ‘how do we beat them?’”
Coughlan’s book covers six decades of Munster rugby glory, from Jim McCarthy’s exploits as the first Munster player to captain Ireland through to the famous defeat of the All Blacks in 1978 and the Heineken Cup victories of 2006 and 2008 of recent years.
It is published by Collins Press.
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