Stringer relishing return to the big time
In his first Heineken Cup start for 17 months, Stringer stepped into the action last Saturday in place of the injured Tomás O’Leary and played in the 23-17 defeat to London Irish. The way the game played out, with Munster getting only one put-in at scrum time against the Exiles, it called for an adjustment that Stringer and his team-mates are keen to be better prepared for at Thomond Park.
“You train and you train to get all your set-piece plays and you practice a lot of moves off the scrum and then you get into a game and there’s only one scrum and it’s difficult to adjust,” Stringer said. “The lineout didn’t go as well as we’d hoped and we didn’t get good quality ball off set-pieces to work with.
“So that’s difficult and we found ourselves with the ball alive a lot in unstructured play with multiple phases and we probably didn’t adapt as well as we should have. So that’s something we’ve worked on but the set-piece is obviously crucial for this game.
“You need a solid platform to work off and if you don’t have that then we’re in trouble. So we’ve targeted that and our multi-phase work too.”
When you’ve played as many Heineken Cup matches as Stringer, appearance number 86 would not normally be considered a significant milestone. Yet for the 32-year-old scrum-half, named man-of-the-match in his side’s 2006 European final victory over Biarritz, last Saturday’s run against London Irish was a far from ordinary occasion.
After a couple of seasons down the pecking order in his position behind O’Leary, Stringer was given his chance at Reading’s Madejski Stadium after the incumbent sustained a thumb fracture the previous weekend in the Munster League defeat to Leinster.
The match against London Irish, then, may have been his 86th in the Heineken Cup, drawing level with Anthony Foley at number three in the competition’s all-time appearance table, but it was also Stringer’s his first European start since the 2008-09 semi-final against Leinster.
“Last weekend was fantastic,” Stringer said. “It’s been a while since I started a Heineken Cup game and just to be involved in the build-up to a game was a great feeling, very emotional, very special. You cherish every minute you get on the pitch.”
Since O’Leary, almost six years his junior, has blossomed into an international class scrum-half over the past four seasons, Stringer has been forced to recalibrate his status in the Munster set-up. This week, as he prepares for the likelihood of starting against Toulon tomorrow at Thomond Park, he admitted he had considered moving on.
“You have a contract for a set period and you see out your contract. I had my contract up just this summer and re-signed for two years. I looked at a few different options, certainly whether to go away or to stay. I had a few long discussions, with my family and coaches and came to the decision to stay here, which for me was the best option.”
Adjusting to life as a second-choice after being top dog for so long, has been a trial, Stringer said.
“It’s been difficult. I haven’t started a lot of games in the last couple of years and every player needs a few games to get into a rhythm and the swing of things.
“It’s about maintaining fitness levels and keeping sharp in training and whatever opportunity you get on the pitch for 10 or 20 minutes at the end of each game you’ve got to make the most of it. You try and stay sharp in the lead-up to games and then hope you get selected and get a bit of a run.
“Mentally it’s quite tough but things happen, injuries happen to people and you get opportunities and you have to be ready to make them.”
Stringer has been trying to stay sharp any way he can, he said.
“I haven’t played any AIL but I played a few Irish A games and that’s been pretty much it really. Then there’s Magners League games and Munster training sessions in the last couple of seasons have become very physical.
“We work hard on our fitness and tend to have matches in our training sessions which you try to involve yourself with as much as you can and get as much work done there. It’s just keeping as sharp as possible and working on every aspect of your game, constantly working on passing and kicking as well in pressure situations to try and replicate match scenarios so it’s just about staying on top of things as much as you can.
“When you come from playing quite regularly in your career and then you’re not selected then that becomes frustrating but the main challenge is to mentally stay on top of it, to remain focused and if you’re called on to be ready for it.
“I found myself initially being frustrated but as it went on I learned to cope with it and tended to re-focus for whenever I got the opportunity.”
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