Munster pleased with ‘back-to-basics’ victory

THE MUNSTER players and staff enjoyed their Halloween party on Saturday night secure in the knowledge that their Magners League campaign – and perhaps the season – was back on track after victory over Ulster.

But nobody, least of all skipper Paul O’Connell or coach Tony McGahan, was getting too far ahead of themselves.

“In some ways, it was a case of back to basics,” said O’Connell. “But as a pack there was a great feeling coming through and again in the dressing room afterwards, the pack knew they had worked their socks off.”

Munster went into the game with major question marks over their injury plagued front-row, with 21-year-old Stephen Archer being pressed into service for his first competitive start at this level. He acquitted himself magnificently against the formidable Springbok prop BJ Botha.

O’Connell continued: “Julien (Brugnaut) and Denis (Fogarty) are very experienced guys and you wouldn’t worry about them.

“I barely knew Stephen before this pre-season but he has a great attitude, he’s excellent at all the basics, does his homework during the week and knows what he’s doing. He was really impressive.

“It’s great to see these young guys coming through. We could have signed a prop on a short-term contract but it’s great to see these young local guys instead who have grown up wanting to play for Munster.”

It will be another five weeks before Munster play again and O’Connell admits to being unsure how the international break will impact on the province’s form.

“Unfortunately, the break is coming on the back of probably our best display of the season,” he said. “Hopefully, we can find that intensity when we come back in five weeks time against the Ospreys. We’ll see then. I’d love to say there would be no doubt about it. We must make sure we’re ready to put in the same work and attention to detail we’ve done this week.

“On the back of that performance, we’d probably love to go another few weeks and get a run of form going. But that’s the way it is. We now go to camp with new ideas and that will be a small little freshener up for some and a break for others.

The result came as a massive relief for Tony McGahan, forwards coach Lawrie Fisher and backs coach Jason Holland, who have been targeted by some for Munster’s poor form. “It was a better performance and it needed to be,” agreed McGahan. “We’re still a bit off but over the 80 minutes we were better tuned in and there was a good response from the players.”

McGahan revealed that Marcus Horan had further tests in Dublin on Friday and is awaiting the results before it’s known whether he can take part in the Irish squad session this week.

Meanwhile, Munster are in negotiations with the IRFU with a view to signing a new prop forward, a player who hasn’t represented another side in European competition this season.

Having failed to satisfy Welsh, Scottish and French referees up to this, Munster were more than pleased to learn that Ireland’s Alain Rolland, widely regarded as one of the best in the business, would be in charge of Saturday’s game.

“It certainly helps getting a quality referee,” said McGahan. “I thought Alain showed great consistency, he talked to the players and allowed the play to flow without flicking through his rule book as others have done in the past to pick up every single thing. He has a great feel for the game, he knows where the momentum is and what we saw tonight was a really good contest.”

Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin wasn’t too downhearted although “very disappointed” at losing by 14 points. “We knew Munster would be fired up after the press they were getting and that we were coming into a cauldron and to be fair we didn’t cope with that very well. It was a big learning curve for us and we’re going home, not with our tails between our legs, but knowing that we have been beaten by a better side.”