Munster must not switch off
Three games in, three wins in the bank and the province are on top of Pool 1, two points ahead of tomorrow’s visitors to Thomond Park, and with last year’s finalists Northampton Saints already out of the qualifying picture with three matches left to play and two of those on home soil.
The optimist would reckon that was a pretty good haul from an opening home game against the pre-tournament group favourites and two away ones but Munster head coach Tony McGahan isclearly not one of those.
Maybe there is a littlekidology to his caution but the Australian knows thenarrow margins by which those first three games were won mean his side could well be up against it again when the Welshmen come looking to avenge last Saturday’s 17-14 reversal at Parc y Scarlets.
Nigel Davies’ side failed to build on the dream startgifted to them by a sloppy opening 20 minutes from Munster and as they dallied, the visitors warmed to their task, kept grinding with a ferocious intensity and came away from west Wales with a valuable away win.
Still, McGahan saw enough danger in that Scarlets performance and in their victories over Castres and at Northampton to know there is much more where that came from and his players will have to apply the same ferocity at the breakdown, in the set-piece and across the defensive line to keep them at bay in Limerick.
“There is a lot of fear for this game and we certainly recognise what Scarlets can do and what they can bring and we know they would like to be better than they wereon Saturday with their own execution.
“But that was down a lot to us as well. We know that you’d like to get things done, you don’t get them done and people look and they say, ‘You didn’t do this, you didn’t do that’. But sometimes it’s about the opposition not allowing you to do that. We recognise that if they get some of those things going like they did in rounds one and two, that is reflective of where they are as a group. We know we need to push on too because you can only live on your wits and get through, so many times.”
McGahan wants to see the whole team address the slow starts to the last two pool games which have putMunster on the back foot, leaving them to work even harder to eke out victory.
Castres raced into an 11-0 lead after 12 minutes in Toulouse last month before a Ronan O’Gara drop goal sealed the win with the last kick of the game and last weekend in Wales, Munster found themselves 8-0 down after nine minutes beforerallying to a 17-14 win.
“The first 20 minutes against Scarlets was poor in every department,” McGahan said. “The first 10 minutes I think we had our kick-chase, our penalty that we gave away, our first three kicks were all (inaccurate). I don’t think it was about mindset but there was inaccuracy about what we delivered and then it got a little bit frantic at times.
“I said we’re far from where we need to be or what we need to do to get through in this pool. They are the things we need to continue to eliminate but certainly our start to the game iscritical, as it will be this weekend.
“If we could get a good, solid start and can get the crowd behind us andput that elementof doubt in theopposition it will certainly goa long waytowards making that next 60minutes after that hopefully a little bit easier.
“We haven’t had an easy 80minutes so far this season. We haven’t had an easy minute this season.”
That looks set to continue tomorrow as Scarlets deploy both Stephen Jones and Rhys Priestland in their starting backline, adding another dose of intrigue to a contest which will see afit-again Keith Earls add firepower to Munster’sattack at outside centre with Simon Zebo and Johne Murphy retaining their places on the wings and Denis Hurley continuing at full-back. The onus is on Scarlets to raise their game and secure quick ball along their line, something they failed to do last weekend. If they do succeed, however, expect some fireworks and a long day in the trenches for Munster’s defensive systems.
Scarlets have ambushed quality teams already this season,following up Munster’s defeat of Northampton in round one by inflicting a killer blow on a still-reeling Saints side six days later at Franklin’s Gardens.
“They got in amongst Northampton early on, got two scores up and then Northampton are chasing the game, make a mistake and they’re in under your posts,” Munster No. 8 James Coughlan noted this week. “That can happen so easily, make a couple of errors, chase the game, force a pass that’s not on and you make another error. That’s the way rugby is and at this level. They never switch off so you can’t afford to switch off against them.”
Munster have a lot done in this pool phase but as the election slogan once reminded us, there’s more to do. McGahan may be preaching caution but the progress already made can be furthered at Thomond Park tomorrow, as long as the home side stay switched on.
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