Penney: Ball in Munster's court

HEINEKEN CUP POOL SIX:

For the second year in succession, Rob Penney’s team has Edinburgh in its pool and this time around the home side looks even less up to the task of securing victory as when Munster last set foot in a less than half full national stadium back in January.

Bottom of the RaboDirect Pro12 league table with just one win in five starts this season, possessing the most porous defence and the tamest attack, in terms of tries conceded and scored and points against and for, Edinburgh are there for the taking.

Yet while victory seems as assured as it can ever be in this most remarkable of competitions, head coach Penney is right to point to the battles that will still need to be won today because this may be an inferior side to Munster but they can be a hard one to break down, particularly at home and especially now their focus has turned to European competition.

The Scots, still finding their feet under new head coach Alan Solomons, proved obdurate visitors to Musgrave Park last month when Munster opened their league campaign with a 34-23 victory that despite coming with a bonus point attached never saw the home side able to shake Edinburgh off, just as was the case in the European pool last winter, when Munster went to Murrayfield and failed to come away with a bonus point, taking their qualification bid down to the wire in their final game against Racing Metro.

“Even it you take it back and reflect on what they were able to do last year,” Penney reflected, “their broken-field running, their ability to break you open from scraps, was always a worry for any team they played.

“I’m sure they’ll be looking to re-ignite a bit of that stuff. They have got a really handy set-piece. They tend to put the ball in the air a lot and that’s something that if the conditions are conducive to, it can be challenging.

“They’re a big team and they can do some damage at the breakdown so if you are a bit loose or underdone mentally, that would be our biggest concern.”

With that in mind, there is no doubt that Penney will have attempted to deflate just enough of the buoyancy created by last Saturday’s league win over Leinster, a first in five meetings. There is nothing as dangerous for Munster as complacency and those last two games against Edinburgh should not stray too far from the memory.

Still, there is much to encourage Munster supporters about the way their team overpowered Leinster at Thomond Park last weekend and indeed the way they have set about this new campaign, for there are clear signs they are better equipped this season to implement Penney’s ideas of clear-thinking rugby with all his players apparently much more capable of sound decision-making.

Munster are by no means the finished article in that regard but there is plenty of promise about the direction they are heading in.

The absence of captain Peter O’Mahony following a blow to the head last week is a concern and having progressed through all the return to play protocols that accompany head injuries, one wonders if the decision to omit him would have been made so readily had it been Pool 6 rivals Gloucester or Perpignan first up today.

From a Munster point of view, one would hope that is the only act of complacency the province allows itself as kick-off approaches.

It is difficult to know what Edinburgh must be thinking as the two-time champions arrive in their city. Nothing has gone right for them this season, or indeed for most of the last one, when Michael Bradley departed before it concluded, less than a year after guiding them to the Heineken Cup semi-finals with a last-eight win over Toulouse along the way.

Bradley’s successor, the former Ulster and Northampton head coach Solomons, did not exactly sound defiant yesterday after naming a side showing four changes from the league defeat last week at Cardiff Blues, including a new midfield pairing in Scotland caps Matt Scott and Nick De Luca.

“It’s Heineken Cup week and it’s a massive game,” Solomons said. “But we have to keep focused on our process of building this club, which has only just begun, and will continue against one of the premier sides in Europe this afternoon.

“They have won the competition twice, reached the play-offs innumerable times, and are coming here at full strength. They are a very good side, and what’s important is that they are a very settled side. That is what we’re aiming for, and that is what takes time.”

Not exactly Shakespearean in its call to arms and possibly an insight into how the Edinburgh boss is viewing the European campaign. What really matters, though, is how much pride is stirring inside the hearts of the Edinburgh players.

“They had a really disappointing end to their last campaign and the start of this one,” the Munster head coach said. “They’ll be looking at this game as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and say ‘we’ve got nothing to lose, let’s rip into them and rip some heads off’.

“Goodness, they could be dangerous if they unleash themselves and play the way that we know they’re capable of playing. They will be very dangerous.”

That will certainly instil the right mindset within Munster brains and may prove the difference, not between victory and defeat, but whether or not the visitors return to their province with or without a bonus point for a seemingly inevitable victory.

EDINBURGH: J Cuthbert; D Fife, N De Luca, M Scott, T Visser; H Leonard, G Laidlaw — captain; A Dickinson, R Ford, W Nel, G Gilchrist, S Cox, D Basilaia, C Du Preez, D Denton Replacements: A Lutui, L Blaauw, G Cross, O Atkins, R Grant, S Kennedy, J Dominguez, S Hidalgo-Clyne MUNSTER: F Jones; K Earls, C Laulala, J Downey, S Zebo; I Keatley, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, M Sherry, S Archer, D Ryan, P O’Connell (c), P Butler, N Ronan, J Coughlan Replacements: D Varley, J Cronin, BJ Botha, D O’Callaghan, CJ Stander, D Williams, JJ Hanrahan, D Hurley. Referee: JP Doyle (England)