Howlett braced for physical Italian front
Just as Rob Penney got his tenure as Munster head coach up and running with an opening win in Edinburgh last Saturday, the Italians got their league campaign off to a flying start last weekend with a home defeat of reigning champions Ospreys.
Having watched that bruising 12-6 win over the Welsh region, Penney and his players had been girding themselves for an ultra physical challenge in Limerick tonight against a seasoned pack full of Italian internationals.
While the physicality offered by the Italians may not be diminished, the sight of frontline Italian back row stars Robert Barbieri and Alessandro Zanni on the Treviso bench rather than the pitch at kick-off will surely be a reason for Munster to feel comfortable about dealing with the challenge in the key area of the breakdown.
Rising scrum-half talent Fabio Semenzato also starts among the replacements, as does Italy fly-half Kris Burton, who started at full-back against Ospreys and kicked all 12 Treviso points.
Tonight will mark Doug Howlett’s first competitive home game since replacing Paul O’Connell as squad captain and the former All Black wing believes his side has to match Treviso’s physicality if they are to continue their winning start.
“They beat the Ospreys and we know that they’re a tough, nuggety team and they’re going to stick at it for the 80 minutes,” Howlett said. “If we’re not on the mark physically, we’ll be in for a tough night.”
Asked to name the most pleasing aspect of last weekend’s win over Edinburgh, Howlett alluded to the team’s growing comfort with the new gameplan laid down by his fellow New Zealander Penney.
“The interaction between the forwards and the backs,” he said. “There was some lovely play by the forwards out wide and I’d like to think some nice play from the backs in close but having that ability to play both styles, either tight or to width, is great to have as a team.”
Howlett had combined with Ian Keatley for Munster’s opening try at Murrayfield in something of a role swap that saw the wing kick ahead for the fly-half to gather and touch down in a decisive score on the stroke of half-time.
“I’d like to be on the receiving end of those kicks more often than not but that’s just the way it worked out. I think Ian’s settled in and he’s started to run our backline as a number 10.”
Keatley, though, feels he is far from the polished article at outside half.
“I still think I made a few mistakes but all in all I feel I played pretty well. The thing is just getting an amount of consistency. I know I can play to that level but it’s doing it week in, week out.”
As for Penney, the former Canterbury number eight has been impressed by the Munster set-piece under the direction of forwards coach Anthony Foley and scrum coach Paul McCarthy but has warned there is no room for complacency.
“The set piece has been operating pretty efficiently, I’ve been rapped,” Penney said. “Axel’s got the lineout working really well and Paul Mac’s doing a great job on the scrum but it is still an area of need and we are still growing, we are nowhere near where we want to be.
“But the boys are conscientious workers and determined. It is a pleasure to work with them. It all came together last week, but I suspect we are not over the rollercoaster ride just yet, I expect there’ll be some more bumps on the road.”
Penney sounded confident, initially, that there would not be such a bump tonight.
“No. But that’s the problem: when you get them you tend to get knocked around because you are not strapped in.”
The new head coach has had to do some anchoring himself this week after admitting his delight at finally getting to experience a match at Thomond Park.
“It is exciting,” Penney said. “I just have to keep a lid on myself so I don’t bubble up too much and set the boys off. But it is going to be wonderful to have my first experience there, so I’m looking forward to that.
“I’ve seen it on TV lots, and the boys when they used to come back from All Black tours and so forth and played down here, spoke of this ground with a degree of emotion that they don’t speak of many grounds. So yeah, it will be great to experience it first hand myself.”
MUNSTER: D Hurley; D Howlett — captain, C Laulala, J Downey, L O’Dea; I Keatley, D Williams; W du Preez, D Varley, S Archer; Donncha O’Callaghan, B Holland; Dave O’Callaghan, S Dougall, J Coughlan.
Replacements: M Sherry, D Kilcoyne, BJ Botha, D Foley, P Butler, P Stringer, S Deasy, I Dineen.
TREVISO: B Williams; L Nitoglia, A Sgarbi, L Morisi, T Iannone; A Di Bernardo, E Gori; M Rizzo, E Ceccato, L Cittadini; A Pavanello — captain, V Bernabò; S Favaro, D Budd, P Derbyshire.
Replacements: G Maistri, A De Marchi, I Fernandez-Rouyet, C Van Zyl, R Barbieri, A Zanni, F Semenzato, K Burton.
Referee: A McMenemy (SRU)
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