Munster frailties could be exposed

ALL rational thinking suggests that only the Thomond Park factor can save Munster from a second Heineken Cup defeat at the venue when Northampton Saints come calling on Saturday.

Whereas Munster have lost their last three RaboDirect league games and are badly hit by injury, retirements and a recruitment failure to fill problem positions, the Saints are marching along very nicely since the return of their World Cup contingent, a fact underlined by their 24-13 away win over London Wasps on Sunday.

Having allowed Paul Warwick to slip away to Stade Francais during the close season, the last thing Tony McGahan needed was yet another long-term injury to afflict Felix Jones.

The richly talented Dubliner was lined up as Warwick’s full-back replacement but his absence means Johne Murphy will have to make do. A less than satisfactory situation given he would have been the likely substitute for the latest injury victim, Keith Earls, who will be out of action for a month or more.

Jerry Flannery’s future remains uncertain and if all that wasn’t bad enough, the loss of David Wallace from the back-row is being increasingly felt with every game.

McGahan opted for an axis of Donnacha Ryan, Niall Ronan and Denis Leamy against Leinster last week. It just didn’t work.

Ronan was called ashore, Ryan was switched to the second row and Leamy was yellow carded, albeit harshly by the French official Pascal Gauzere who seemed to think the 48,500 spectators turned to watch him rather than Ireland’s best teams.

With Alan Quinlan retired, Wallace out of the equation for another couple of months and names like Anthony Foley and Jim Williams fading from the memory with every passing year, an area where Munster were always brilliantly served is now becoming a major problem. Failure to recruit once Wallace’s difficulties became apparent last August may cost the side dearly.

Much the same could be said about the quality of midfield players available. When Munster were reaching finals and capturing the Heineken Cup, they had powerful centres in Mike Mullins, Rob Henderson, Trevor Halstead, Rua Tipoki, Lifeimi Mafi and Jean de Villiers. Nothing gave them greater pleasure than to run straight and hard at opponents.

Of that group, Mafi is the only one left and he looked sharp against Leinster, even if his style has become so recognisable that all too often the opposition know what’s coming and prepare accordingly. Will Chambers has been recruited from the Queensland Reds but the Heineken Cup is upon us without anyone quite sure whether he is the real thing or not. Talk of signing Conrad Smith or Ma’a Nonu or the return of de Villiers seems such a long time ago now.

Even Sam Tuitoupu, who was ditched after one season and is now with Sale Sharks, broke the odd tackle. Without being too pessimistic, it is difficult to see where the tries will come from if the line breaks aren’t forthcoming.

Ireland had little cutting edge in midfield in the recent World Cup. Much the same, one fears, may apply to Munster in the coming weeks.

HAVING failed their first big teston Friday, they know only toowell if they fail to deliver the now customary home win against Northampton on Saturday their season will be in serious trouble. The sides are relatively familiar with each other from the 2009/10 tournament when they met on three occasions. In the first match, Northampton won decisively at Franklins Gardens. In the return at Thomond Park, Munster were again in trouble when Paul O’Connell was yellow carded after a series of verbal battles with French referee Romain Poite. Almost immediately the Saints were pushed off a scrum on their own put-in on the Munster line and the home side rallied in memorable fashion to eke out a win and advance in the competition.

Northampton also got through in eighth place and that meant a return visit to Thomond Park, where Munster romped home 33-19 with two tries by Doug Howlett and one each by Jean de Villiers and Paul Warwick.

In the meantime, though, Northampton have reached a Heineken final and indeed looked certain winners at half-time in Cardiff last May. However, they succumbed to a fierce second half Leinster onslaught and after a slow start to this campaign have reeled off five successive wins. Two of their tries on Sunday were touched down by powerhouse props Soane Tongauiha and Brian Mujati, a pair capable of setting Munster’s South Africans BJ Botha and Wian du Preez a searching examination on Saturday.