I knew Munster would serve up something special, says Stringer

While his Munster team-mates were writing their names in the history books once again, Peter Stringer sat in a bar on his own watching the game.

The iconic half back may have been disappointed with Munster’s decision to drop him down the pecking order which ultimately led to him leaving the club but that didn’t mean he was hoping for a Harlequins victory on Sunday.

Stringer was effectively sidelined by Munster in mid-season and this week signed a one-year deal beyond his loan period with Bath. However he travelled to London the night before the game to lend some support to his former colleagues, despite losing at home to Stade Francais in the Amlin Cup earlier that day.

“I went down the night before the game,” he said yesterday. “I met the lads and had a catch-up. I went to meet them, see how they were doing, they were quietly confident and I knew the mindset was different for that game. It was just incredible.

“I didn’t go to the game, watched it on TV, watched it by finding a tiny little bar with nobody in it, had a 7-Up and a sandwich. There was one TV where some people were watching football and I was the only one watching the rugby.

“I was very proud. I didn’t meet them [players] afterwards and I went back to Bath, but it was a great day, another one of the great days in the Heineken Cup. Hopefully it can continue.”

Given the position the team were in going into the game, a poor RaboDirect Pro12 campaign and the concession of over 50 points the week before to Glasgow, another loss would have heaped pressure on the management but Stringer felt Munster’s reputation made Harlequins wary.

“I saw the Glasgow game the week before and obviously it was disappointing, the thing over here is that people hold Munster in such high esteem that you don’t realise home in Ireland that teams competing in the Premiership actually think about what’s going on in Ireland.

“Yet, Munster’s reputation is huge here. In the couple of years I’ve been here people have always been asking about Munster, how they do things, how they’ve become so successful.

“People have been asking me about how I felt things might go because they couldn’t judge on the previous performances but yet they had an idea of how it might go.

“I would have said during the week that I fancied them. It’s a different mindset, the Heineken Cup, and a different mindset as how Munster approach an away Heineken Cup game.

“That away game in England, the fact that it was a knockout match, that’s what Munster was always about.”

There’s a chance Stringer might still pick up a third Heineken Cup medal on the basis that he was involved in the Munster match-day squad against Racing Metro back in November but the possibility of that happening isn’t high on his worry list.

This time, it’s all about helping Bath to achieve what needs to be achieved before the end of the season.

“We’re three games in the Premiership. We’re in the top six and there is a chance of playing Heineken Cup next season. We have a difficult run-in with Quins, Leicester and Saracens in the last three but to be in the Heineken next year would be a massive goal for me personally as it would, of course, for the club.”

* In tomorrow’s paper, Peter Stringer talks to Barry Coughlan about his disappointment at being snubbed by Munster.