Wallace back to test patience of Saints

BACK in 2000, David Wallace was just a youngster, not yet 24, and in his third season on the provincial scene; today, he is one of just four starters from that year’s Heineken Cup final defeat to Northampton still on the scene for Munster (the suspended John Hayes along with Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer are the others, with Alan Quinlan, Donncha O’Callaghan and Marcus Horan among the subs).

As Munster prepare to meet Northampton in Heineken Cup again this Saturday, their first meeting with the Saints since that fateful afternoon, David looks back, but not in anger. Revenge, the dish best served cold? Not even in his thoughts, he says.

“Oh, Northampton?” and he pauses, surprised the question should even come up — “I’m sure there are very few guys still there from that team, if any, so it’s very hard to compare. It’s not a revenge thing now, it’s a long time ago in people’s memories — I think we’ve got to face this game as a separate entity.”

Still, though, disappointing and all as it was for Munster, it was an unforgettable experience. Though it was practically a home game for Northampton, a short drive down the M1 from their midlands base, Munster red dominated off the field at least; in the stands during the game, and in the streets and pubs around Twickenham both before and after.

“I wouldn’t know much about what happened in the pubs and so on,” says David, “But what I can remember is the amount of support we had going over, probably 40,000 or so — maybe even more — which was totally unheard of for us at that stage.

“There was a huge groundswell of support, people queuing for tickets — it was brilliant for us, but a pity we didn’t finish it off. We were probably overawed by it all, the build-up, the actual event itself. It was a bit distracting in certain aspects, but people learned from that, it helped us in the years afterwards.”

After the match, both teams were acclaimed, individually, by both sets of supporters, a hugely sporting gesture but especially so from the Munster fans, the disappointment of the loss still being absorbed. For David Wallace and his team-mates, however, the gesture, while appreciated, was lost on the players.

“Oh, bitter disappointment, I don’t think there was anything else. It was a close game, you kind of feel that maybe we could have stepped it up a bit.

“We were a little bit dazzled by everything, we needed to focus on the rugby and I don’t think we did — disappointment that we didn’t tune in properly.” Perhaps the same could be said after last Saturday’s humiliation at the RDS, against Leinster, but let’s leave that, different fish to fry this weekend.

There were those on that team back in 2000, great servants such as the captain, Mick Galwey, legendary prop Peter Clohessy, who probably felt that this would be their last opportunity for European gold, but what of Wallace? Scorer of the only try that day, did he think he’d be back on that stage as often as he has?

“I don’t know — certainly having had a taste of it, that did whet the appetite. After that, from both ourselves and our supporters, there was nearly an air of expectation, that we were going to do it, the search for the Holy Grail and all that.

“It was at the back of our minds, definitely, that’s what we wanted to do, and having got that far, we knew it was within our capabilities.”

Last year it was Leinster’s turn, last Sunday it was again Leinster’s turn, though this time in the Magners League.

Could there be an air of retribution in the air in Northampton this Saturday? If so, it’ll have nothing to do with either the Saints or the final of 2000.

More recent and rawer hurts have seen to that.