Warning bells sound for Munster

A MONTH ago, Munster travelled to Perpignan with many astute judges predicting the game would represent the end of an era.

What happened at the Stade Aime Giral that memorable December Sunday stunned the rugby world, made a few pundits swallow humble pie and again raised the expectation levels around Tony McGahan’s side.

All of which means that anything less than a comprehensive victory for Munster over Treviso in the Stadio Comunale Di Monigo today will come as a shock. The reasoning goes that if Munster could storm the citadel of the French champions and depart with a bonus point, they should be able to see off the lowly Italians with something to spare.

It is a fair assessment, and yet, the warning bells have been sounding ever since the Italians beat Perpignan back in October in the first round of the competition and then frightened the lives out of Northampton before Christmas.

On the basis of the 9-8 defeat of Perpignan and the 21-18 loss to the Saints in Franklins Garden, this is no Italian team to be swept contemptuously aside on the way to a facile bonus-point victory.

The Munster management and players have been beating this drum for the past week and fuelling the cautionary note still further by underlining the inactivity of more than half the team since the Perpignan game. Then there are the changes in personnel enforced on coach Tony McGahan with players of the calibre of Denis Leamy, Jerry Flannery and Marcus Horan ruled out through injury.

McGahan yesterday gave Jean de Villiers the vote alongside Keith Earls with Niall Ronan coming into a reshuffled back row in place of Leamy. This means that Lifeimi Mafi must be satisfied with a place on the bench where he is joined by James Coughlan, who is unfortunate not to make it as a direct replacement at number eight.

Instead, that role has been handed to David Wallace, who has had a magnificent campaign and is unlikely to be unduly discommoded by the switch to a position with which he is very familiar.

So 13 of the side that started in Perpignan do so again today and on the face of it, this looks a team well capable of departing with the four points that will keep them astride Pool One no matter what happens in the game between Northampton and Perpignan.

“The important thing for us to get off to a good start,” said McGahan shortly before the team’s departure from Shannon Airport yesterday. “Treviso have led in their Heineken matches so far against Perpignan, Munster and Northampton and if that happens again, they will use their kickers like Marius Goosen and Luke McLean to play territory and make it very difficult for us. We’re in control of the pool and a win is all-important because we need to keep it that way. We don’t want to be behind Northampton when they come to Thomond Park on Friday although the outcome of their game on Sunday against Perpignan will be very interesting. They are in a rich vein of form at the moment with nine straight wins in all competitions and are widely expected to beat Perpignan.”

McGahan acknowledges that the Treviso game could also prove something of a banana skin for his own side. There have been very definite signs emanating from Northern Italy that a team well coached by the former Springbok Franco Smith has its sights set on producing one of the great upsets in the history of the Heineken Cup.

Indeed, McGahan received a “friendly” warning from an Italian acquaintance that Treviso are “gunning” for his side and Ronan O’Gara acknowledges that they regard the game as their “cup final”.

The best way to deal with Italian rugby teams is to take them on and beat them up front – and, as the coach stressed, the sooner the better. Munster palpably failed to do so in the early stages of the first meeting of the sides. The Italians paraded three powerful front-row operators from the start that day and then replaced them with three more of the same quality 10 minutes after the restart. They will adopt precisely the same strategy on this occasion so Wian du Preez, Denis Fogarty and John Hayes will need to be ready for a fierce onslaught. Later on, McGahan could well decide to fight fire with fire and introduce Julien Brugnaut, Damien Varley and Tony Buckley.

However, it is impossible not to envisage Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Alan Quinlan failing to lord it at lineout time and even though Leamy is a big loss, the Munster back-row trio has both the experience and the ability to more than share their part of the battle.

Expect to see Tomas O’Leary make one or two of his trademark bursts, Ronan O’Gara to dominate the proceedings with another polished out-half display, Jean de Villiers to again enjoy a profitable afternoon and the three-quarter line and full-back Paul Warwick to turn on the style in much the same way as they did in Perpignan.

Munster to claim the points with relative comfort, having weathered a difficult enough opening period.