Munster mindset v French money
Even though some very familiar names are missing from the matchday 23, the French are still outstanding exponents of the code, more than half have graced the greatest rugby arenas in the world and are household games just about everywhere.
The names trip off the tongue… Wilkinson, Contepomi, Fernandez Lobbe, Mignoni, Smith, Van Niekerk and so many, many more. Indeed, the Toulon president, Mourad Boudjellal, who has amassed a fortune from the comic strip business, has put together a squad of such eminence that quite a few will start on the bench this afternoon and players of the calibre of the Argentine Juan Fernandez Lobbe and Scotland’s Rory Lamont haven’t even been asked to depart the lovely seaside idyll that is Toulon on the Cote d’Azur.
However, all may not be quite what it seems. There is a widely-held belief that Toulon are little more than a band of ageing mercenaries, guys in their 30s out to make a financial killing while enjoying a new and exotic lifestyle before the day inevitably dawns and they must hang up their boots. And there are also those who believe that Boudjellal and his head coach Pierre Saint-Andre, a man more than a little familiar with Thomond Park since his days with Sale Sharks, sees the French Championship as a more appetising target than the Heineken Cup.
In the normal course of events, Munster coaches Tony McGahan and Mick Galwey would have scrupulously avoided saying or doing anything that might give the opposition extra motivation going into a game of this importance. However, when McGahan commented during the week that the French team had been “bankrolled together”, he was simply stating the truth. Galwey went so far as to suggest that their squad “is the best that money can buy.”
Given that Toulon reportedly paid the New Zealander Tana Umaga €300,000 when he joined them in 2006 and Australian scrum-half George Gregan €400,000 when he enlisted in ‘07, one can only wonder at what England World Cup winning out-half Jonny Wilkinson, to name but one, might be banking.
Toulon’s interest for European glory should have been whetted a little more by last week’s late, late victory at home against the Ospreys when a superb pass by Wilkinson paved the way for a decisive try by winger and fellow English international Paul Sackey. They would be in a particularly good place this evening should they depart Thomond Park with four points but because of three hugely important French Championship games looming in successive weeks and the Heineken Cup rule limiting each side to two non-EU members, they are forced to mix and match from week to week.
This time round, the number 10 jersey goes to Felipe Contepomi with Wilkinson on the bench but ready to be called upon should his many attributes be required. This is the classic example of the riches available to Saint-Andre although he will know as well as anybody about the “history” involving Contepomi and this Munster team and especially three specific players, Ronan O’Gara, Donncha O’Callaghan and Denis Leamy. The Puma believes that the trio set out to antagonise him whenever he lines out against them. Sometimes he has allowed them to get under his skin but he has had the last laugh in the more recent confrontations. His head-to-head with O’Gara should be worth the admission price alone.
With the eel-like Pierre Mignoni inside him at scrum-half and three-quarters of the calibre of Mafileo Kefu and Rudi Wulf only too willing to test the tackle, it could be a difficult afternoon for a Munster formation missing centres Lifeimi Mafi and Sam Tuitupou because of suspension. McGahan is one very happy man to have signed Johne Murphy given that his versatility has allowed him to play his first three matches in the red jersey at second centre before he moved to the wing and then full-back against London Irish last week. Today, he pulls on the number 12 jersey, his fourth of the campaign to date.
Murphy claims to be philosophical about all of this – “I don’t mind where they pick me” – but there is a lot more to it than that. The constant chopping and changing in the Munster back line cannot help teamwork or boost the team’s overall self belief and morale. However, most will be glad to see Paul Warwick restored at full-back and in any case the outcome, as always, will be decided by what happens up front.
Saint-Andre is sending out a very experienced pack containing players of the status of New Zealand prop Carl Hayman; Australian flanker George Smith and South African number eight Joe Van Niekerk. The trio in turn are surrounded by players of proven quality with several others only too ready and willing to join in from the bench.
When it comes to mind games, Saint-Andre won’t be found wanting. He has already been on the wrong end of 31-9 and 37-14 defeats by Munster from his Sale Sharks days and rubbishes the notion that they are a team growing old together.
“We know the way they will play and how the crowd will try to intimidate us and the referee”, he claimed. What is true is that Wayne Barnes’s interpretation of the breakdown law is just one area where the English referee has a big part to play in this game.
Having astonished everyone by omitting Alan Quinlan from the match 23 last week, McGahan is now including the Tipperary man from the start in what will be his 202nd appearance in the red jersey. Niall Ronan drops to the bench to make way for David Wallace while Mick O’Driscoll is preferred to Donnacha Ryan in the second-row. So it’s a case of two wily old packs doing battle and on the face of things, the only good reasons for predicting a Munster victory is the Thomond Park factor and the slight possibility that the French may not be quite up for the fight if things aren’t going their way.
Referee – Wayne Barnes (England).
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