Coughlan relishes the big game buzz

ON THE way out of Thomond Park on Saturday evening,through the labyrinth of corridors, I met Dougie Howlett hobbling along on crutches – “God Doug,” says I (not that I was bestowing divinity on him, you understand, well and all as his two-try effort may have merited it), “that doesn’t look good!”

“Ah,” he replied, “No need to worry, it should be alright.”

In what had been one of his finest matches since coming to Munster, Howlett had injured his ankle when scoring his second try in the 76th minute, the insurance score for Munster, and was replaced by Billy Holland even before Ronan O’Gara had kicked the sideline conversion.

With the semi-final still three weeks away it gives the All Blacks all-time record try-scorer plenty of time to recover, but with Connacht up next weekend in a critical Magners League match, the Ospreys in Thomond Park the week after, these are crucial times for Munster. On this form, however, it’s all beginning to look good for the southern province.

Traditionally, and not just over the past unprecedented decade of success but in all the decades that preceded it, the scrum wasn’t just the source of ball for the men in red, it was a source of pride. Earlier this season, however, it had begun to creak, so much so that even the perennial carpers began to sound as though they actually knew what they were talking about.

On Saturday, and for the second week in a row, it was back, to the extent that renowned Scottish tight head Euan Murray found himself making the long walk to the sidelines as early as the 56th minute, a beaten docket.

Given such a platform, captain O’Gara was in total control.

“That’s what makes it easy for half-backs,” he said, “that’s what’s pleasing. I saw it in fella’s faces against Perpignan away (Munster’s best performance of the season to date), I saw it again today. Today was very pleasing to see, the way we started, the way we kept going.”

One of the members of that pack, in fact its newest member at this level of competition, was number eight James Coughlan, getting his first Heineken Cup start – what a day for him, and what a difference from the usual Magners League fare.

“Hugely intense – every little thing was a contest and that’s how we approached it; all the kick retreats, the charge downs, the breakdowns, that’s the intensity you have to bring to it, that every little thing you do is a contest,’’ he said. “Over the 80 minutes I think we won more of those than we lost, and that’s the winning or the losing of the game.”

Win the little battles, but first, win the big ones, and Munster – with Coughlan doing his bit – did that. Part of the problem with Munster was that there were too many passengers come scrum-time, too many guys in the backrow more intent on seeing where the break was going to come from than keeping the head down and pushing. Not on Saturday which saw a eight-man shove all game.

“It’s essential,” said Coughlan, “the minute anyone throws their head up, that’s when you want to have a second shove, and I think that’s what happened for Jean’s score (de Villiers, 52nd minute), we had that initial shove; on the first scrum we went for it, it forced their back-row to bite in for a second or two and that allowed Tomás (O’Leary, scrum-half) to get out to Jean, allowed him to have a run at the lads.”

Mind you, when Coughlan got the call from coach Tony McGahan to inform him of selection, he initially felt it was for another reason – “I thought it was because I was being dropped completely, so it was nice to be told I was starting. You have the edge, that buzz. You sit down with Laurie (Fisher, forwards coach) and a few of the lads, go through what you’re going to go through. It’s work-time, the intensity is different, the level is different, and it’s up to you to put your hand up and say, ‘Yeah, I’m here, and I’m going to stay here for as long as I can.’ No-one wants to hand that jersey over. Wealways say ‘we’re just keeping it warm for the next guy,’ but you still want to keep it for as long as you can, if that makes sense.”

Makes perfect sense, always has, which was why an established world star like Howlett, who has just signed a two-year extension, defended and attacked as though his life still depended on it, why another world star, Jean de Villiers, though he has already decided to head back to South Africa at the end of the season, put in a shift of massive intensity, why youngsters such as Coughlan and Keith Earls can slot seamlessly into the side. This was a team performance, in every sense, and it was ominous.