McGahan: aggression and discipline will be key
Having missed out on the quarter-finals for the first time in 13 years last season, the pressure is on Munster to hit the ground running in their home opener against last year’s runners-up and McGahan has called for more aggression at the breakdown, greater discipline and more clinical finishing than was shown in last Friday night’s Aviva Stadium defeat to Leinster.
Munster may have kept the European champions try less for the second meeting in a row and the set-piece functioned well but the aforementioned negatives allowed Leinster to kick their way to a 24-19 victory courtesy of seven Jonathan Sexton penalties and one Rob Kearney drop goal while the visitors had to settle for a penalty try and four penalties plus a conversion from Ronan O’Gara.
“On our ball, I don’t know if we were too nice but I certainly think we didn’t have the required aggression to make sure that we cleared that area and made it a no-go zone,” McGahan said of the breakdown against Leinster.
“So, we really need to be efficient, it is where the game is, you look at it through the World Cup and the Heineken Cup and if you’re looking at last year, it was the sides who were very strong at the breakdown that generally got the result.
“And that influences the referee’s decisions, it influences the momentum and the psyche of the group so there are a number of objectives to get to that point. We weren’t naive I just don’t think we were good enough.”
McGahan, who named an extended 29-man squad for the weekend, missing only the injured Keith Earls from the one which was selected last week, will also be looking to stop Northampton racking up the points courtesy of cheap penalties or yellow cards, as was the case against Leinster, when Denis Leamy was sin-binned during the second half.
“If you refer to last week’s game there certainly was a lot of penalties but it certainly cost us because they were all in kicking range,” McGahan said.
“So certainly we need to be in control of ourselves, there’s no doubt about that, in control of our emotion and in control of our decision making.
“You really need to have a fear of a discipline instilled in you that you’re not going to take the easy option out or the soft option out or the option that affects the other 14 guys. You make a really clear decision based on what’s in front of you and not just making a snap decision. But we do need to work on that.”
Discipline, then, will be sharply in focus and doubly so given Northampton’s aggressive style of play, the Munster head coach added.
“There are a side who are certainly in your face, they let you know if you have made a mistake. I think the strong thing about Northampton is that they are a side that does not beat themselves, they are a well-disciplined side and they limit their mistakes.
“And if you are going to get a result against them, we certainly know we need to make sure to control our own territory and you are not giving them easy opportunities to kick points and give them easy field possession because they are a side that feed off mistakes. They are certainly not a side who beat themselves.”
Munster have been capable of doing just that in the past and McGahan also recognised the current lack of try-scoring firepower before backing his backs to dig deep and produce some more clinical finishing.
“It is about attitude and it certainly is about having strong knowledge of the game. Once you have got that, it comes as a second instinct you don’t need to think about it, it just occurs,” the Munster boss said.
“In the frenzy of a Heineken Cup game against good sides, with big crowds and the pressure, you revert back to what you practiced and what you know. We need to bebetter at that and I think we’ll get a response this week.”
Forwards: M Horan, W du Preez, BJ Botha, J Hayes, S Archer, D Varley, D Fogarty, D Ryan, P O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, B Holland, P O’Mahony, N Ronan, J Coughlan, D Leamy.
Backs: C Murray, T O’Leary, P Stringer, D Williams, R O’Gara, I Keatley, S Deasy, J Murphy, D Howlett, D Barnes, W Chambers, L Mafi, Denis Hurley.
Not considered because of injury: D Wallace (knee), F Jones (ankle), J Flannery (back/calf), K Earls (knee), M Sherry (ankle), Darragh Hurley (back), P Borlase (back), Dave O’Callaghan (knee), S Scanlon (neck), I Dineen (knee), D Cusack (jaw), T Smith (knee).
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