Back-row battles against all the odds

If ever there was a game for a back-row to stand up and fight it was this one.

Munster’s build-up to the home Heineken Cup tie with Saracens on Saturday had been undermined by loose forwards falling by the wayside. Where sixes and sevens were concerned, Rob Penney’s selection options were becoming increasingly limited; at sixes and sevens even.

No Sean Dougall, nor Barry O’Mahony, forget Niall Ronan and discount CJ Stander. When No.8 Shane Buckley limped out of Munster A’s British & Irish Cup tie victory at Rotherham on Saturday you began to wonder whether an evil conspiracy was afoot. So it was fitting that, against such a backdrop of woe and misfortune, the back-row sent out against Saracens just a couple of hours later should all put in outstanding shifts to help defeat the English heavyweights. Dave O’Callaghan, Peter O’Mahony and man of the match James Coughlan all shone, bristling with fervour and intensity, putting their bodies on the line and carrying the fight to Saracens throughout the evening.

O’Callaghan, 22, making his first Heineken Cup start after appearances off the bench at Northampton and Racing Metro in the last 12 months, was everywhere during an opening period when Munster got up in Sarries’ faces and met fire with fire, stealing one of the visitors’ much-vaunted lineouts and taking a few big hits in the process and rising time and again to meet the next challenge until he was hauled ashore having given everything to the cause.

“He was terrific,” Penney said. “I thought his first 20 minutes was absolutely terrific. It was on the back of the pack’s work that we set some really good platforms for us to be able to launch and he was part of what was a terrific first-up effort.”

O’Mahony, playing openside, was at his aggressive best, both in the set-piece and loose, bringing with him from Ireland’s autumn internationals the intensity that helped quell a formidable Argentine back-row unit while his presence at the line-out was an increasingly important facet of Munster’s play.

Then there was Coughlan, who had returned the previous week for the first time in 11 weeks after suffering a groin tear that should have rendered him unavailable into 2013. Coughlan was assured under every restart, his carrying superb, his work-rate high. It was all that could be asked of him, and Penney suggested a long-anticipated Ireland cap would not be too far away as a result.

Coughlan, though, was not getting carried away, instead asking for more of himself and his cohorts when Munster have to do it all again in Watford next Sunday.

“We wanted to set down our marker, physically, early and I think we achieved that,” Coughlan said, “but our accuracy maybe went out the window as a result so it’s something we’re going to have to look at.

“We need to be a bit more controlled in what we’re doing because I think we left a fair amount of points behind us.”