Munster should hand captaincy to O’Mahony

After 15 minutes of Saturday’s gripping Heineken Cup semi-final, I feared for Munster.

Despite a great start that ticked all the boxes in terms of laying down a marker and getting points on the board, the response from Clermont was both instantaneous and spectacular. You will travel a long way to see a better try than that delivered by Napolioni Nalaga.

However, it was what Munster achieved from that point forward that offers me hope for the future. Clermont have real star quality all over the field yet Munster not only coped with everything thrown at them but outscored Clermont 7-3 in the second half. You just cannot buy the type of experience clocked up by Dave Kilcoyne, Mike Sherry, Tommy O’Donnell and Peter O’Mahony last Saturday. Kilcoyne went 80 minutes against the combined scrummaging might of David Zirakashvili and Clement Ric without yielding an inch. The only pity was that Stephen Archer wasn’t there to bag even ten minutes of that experience off the bench.