McGahan’s men make Euro sceptics take notice

IF this is what Munster can dowhen they do find their cuttingedge, then look out Europe.

The men in red finally got their game together — well, most of it anyway — at stadium:MK on Saturday night to finally announce their return as contenders in the Heineken Cup.

Tony McGahan’s men ran in five tries against Northampton Saints to trounce last year’s finalists on English soil, secured an invaluable home quarter-final draw as the tournament’s top seeds and completed their first clean sweep of six wins from six pool matches since the four-team group format was introduced in 1997.

The results will show perfection but, until this trip, the displays had been far from that, a combination of incomplete performances, wasted opportunities, nerve-grinding tension and last-gasp heroics.

There was sporting heroism of a different kind on Saturday night though, as Munster, their scrum pulverised throughout, found a way to win without that most vital of set-piece plays, dominating every other facet of the game and at last getting a previously misfiring back line to play, not just with error-free efficiency but also with verve, creativity and clinical finishing.

And nowhere was that discovery of a killer instinct better encapsulated than in the second-half hat-trick of tries scored by Heineken Cup rookie Simon Zebo, the 21-year-old from Cork who first finished off a great back line move, then raced home with an intercept from halfway and finally ran a great line to plunge the knife into Northampton’s already broken hearts. Underpinned yet again by the goal-kicking of Ronan O’Gara, it was all done at a blisteringly high tempo that had formerly thought to be the sole preserve in Ireland of their old foes up the road, Leinster.

And if Zebo was the star of show, director of rugby McGahan was not slow to recognise the contributions of his side’s senior statesmen.

“You look towards each year to be able to do something special as a group but at this point of where we are in the season, to be six from six, is a tremendous reflection of what the group has achieved,” McGahan said.

“Certainly, our leaders through Paul [O’Connell] and Ronan have stood up and dragged us through the stages and everybody else has climbed on board with that. I certainly think the results this year have been moulded through those two guys and certainly Paul as our captain.”

Poor, sorry Northampton. This game did not bring them the expected outlet for all that frustration experienced after O’Gara’s last-ditch drop goal in Limerick in round one. It merely heaped further despair onto them, made all the more aggravating given their dominance at the scrum.

Time and time again Munster’s pack, hailed for the scrummaging improvements it has made this season, was trampled underfoot. Twice they conceded penalty tries that, had referee Romain Poite not intervened, would have seen the Saints forwards shunt them into the supermarket car park next door and yet the rest of Munster’s performance was so overwhelming they could have no excuses this time.

Munster made sure of that, disrupting Northampton at every restart and slowing down Saints ball to unplug livewire scrum-half Lee Dickson and leave their potent back line to cool their jets out wide.

It had been a strange first half, with neither side looking at all comfortable in their own halves and unable to escape them for long periods. Neutralised in the scrum by Soane Tonga’uiha, BJ Botha found another way to hurt the Saints, crashing over for a first-half try that cancelled out the penalty five-pointer and, with both tries converted, O’Gara matched Ryan Lamb’s super drop goal and three penalties with four penalties of his own to leave the match 19-19 at half-time.

But then came a Munster tidal wave after the break that will have had Northampton thinking their second-half nightmare against Leinster in the final last May was coming back to haunt them. First Johne Murphy’s try three minutes in and then Zebo’s tour de force — if the first half had been a head-scratcher there was no such confusion about the second.

Again the scrum was pulverised and again Munster found a way, several ways, to make it matter not a jot. Munster captain O’Connell could not recall a team conceding two penalty tries in a game before, let alone going on to win it. And as for doing so with a try bonus point, well, it makes you wonder what the province will have to do next to top it.

And yet, surpass this performance they must if they are to complete this transitional phase under McGahan ahead of schedule and a win a third Heineken Cup on May 19.

A home quarter-final will help, as well as boosting the overstretched coffers, but the big guns had signalled their intent long before Munster arrived at the party and the captain recognised the reality.

“There is a long way to go yet and we have a long way to go yet as well,” O’Connell said. “The ball ran our way a little bit today, which was great, but I think we have a way to go to get up to the standards of the Leinsters and the Toulouses of the Heineken Cup yet. But certainly, with a bit of luck and the rub of the green, we have a chance of winning it.”

It had been easy, given the previous standard of performance, to dismiss such optimism and ambition as wishful thinking but Munster’s level of play in putting a half-century of points past Northampton has certainly changed the landscape.

Sky Sports analyst and former World Cup winner Will Greenwood had surveyed it following last weekend’s hard-fought win for Munster over Castres and suggested that no-one would fear McGahan’s side in the knockout stages.

The Englishman may be due a rethink after one of his country’s best sides was put to the sword. And Munster now need to ensure this win is the springboard to greater things, rather than the high point of their season.

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: B Foden; J Elliott (S Armstrong 68), G Pisi, J Downey, V Artemyev; R Lamb (S Myler 73), L Dickson (M Roberts 73); S Tonga’uiha (A Waller 66), D Hartley (capt), B Mujati (P Doran-Jones 66), S Manoa, M Sorenson (C Day 62), C Clark (B Nutley 62), P Dowson, R Wilson.

MUNSTER: D Hurley; J Murphy, K Earls, L Mafi (D Barnes), S Zebo; R O’Gara (I Keatley 73), C Murray (T O’Leary 67); W du Preez (M Horan, 56), D Varley (D Fogarty, 75), B Botha (S Archer, 74), Donncha O’Callaghan (M O’Driscoll 73), P O’Connell (capt), D Ryan, P O’Mahony (Dave O’Callaghan 73), J Coughlan.

Referee: Romain Poite (France).