Munster believing in yet another miracle

HEINEKEN CUP SEMI-FINAL:

They’ve nothing to fear, the head coach, said as he suggested Toulon’s video analysts power down their laptops, take the week off and enjoy the sunshine in the south of France ahead of tomorrow’s Heineken Cup showdown in Marseille.

Toulon’s fragilities are minimal, Penney shrugged when asked if he was seeing similarly consistent pictures of weakness to the ones presented to him by Toulouse in the previous round.

“The short answer is ‘no’, the long answer is ‘bugger’,” the Kiwi concluded as he warmed to the theme.

And as for the collection of Galacticos that club president and owner Mourad Boudjellal has assembled from the profits of his publishing empire, Penney could not contain himself when addressing the ease which they can mix and match and not miss a beat.

“They do have a very similar structure, no matter what combinations they put out there, but in saying that, their combinations are all international class players. That’s the thing. Rudi Wulf or (Bryan) Habana, David Smith or Drew Mitchell, all international outside backs and they can all play equally well. Then you go into the middle row, and you’ve got (Danie) Rossouw, (Bakkies) Botha, (Jocelino) Suta, Ali (Williams); they’re all interchangeable. That’s the difficulty. They’ve got such depth and breadth across the board. You take (Jonny) Wilkinson out and you’ve got (Matt) Giteau at 10! “Very challenging.”

Well this might come as a shock to you Rob, but we’re not buying it. Of course Toulon are a wonderful outfit, blessed with a galaxy of stars, massive physical specimens and enough power to light a small country and then reduce it to rubble. And of course they are more than capable of sending Munster packing back to Ireland with their tails between their legs if they don’t get their game right at Stade Vélodrome. We all saw Leinster fail to play to their high potential in the last round and we saw them pay just such a heavy price at Stade Felix Mayol earlier this month for committing far too many errors, missing too many tackles and dropping too many balls.

Yes, Munster will have to be at their very best, better than they were when magnificently putting Toulouse to the sword in the quarter-finals.

Yes, Penney and his staff will have to find a way through that spectacularly intense and physical defence and then stop the like of Steffon Armitage, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Roussouw and Mathieu Bastareaud from charging through their own line and offloading with the devastating effect they have shown in Europe this season.

And there will be times when Munster will have to hang on to the French league leaders’ coattails just to stay in this contest, drawing on every ounce of heart, mental toughness and physical stamina that’s left in their reserves to weather the inevitable storms that Toulon will unleash, and get through a challenge the likes of which they have not yet faced this long season.

As Penney said this week: “There’ll be times, there is in any fixture, where you’re just clinging on for dear life and sometimes those are the defining moments when you either come away with a success or you don’t, and their ability to show resilience and mental toughness and fortitude throughout the game, because there’s going to be lots of stuff thrown at us as we know with the calibre of Toulon, and it will be new for a lot of our boys.

“Just about every player in their squad has some form of international experience and they’ll be preparing for an international. They’ve talked about doing the double. They’ve booked their accommodation in Cardiff, so they’re expecting to be in the final.”

Yet with all those caveats, Penney has chosen not to highlight the fact that Toulon can be beaten and there are not many better teams around right now than Munster who can do it.

They are stronger, fitter and faster now than when they played and only narrowly lost to Clermont Auvergne a year ago in the 2013 semi-final, and with that comes greater focus and resilience when they have to go to those dark places during a game that Toulon will take them.

And they are also armed with not just that experience and heartbreak in Montpellier of 12 months ago but the belief that was lacking when they went into that contest. Taking that Clermont team to the very limit on French soil, having beaten Harlequins on their own turf in the previous round, showed not just us but Munster and their young players themselves that they can live with the best teams.

Beating Gloucester at Kingsholm and then Perpignan at Stade Aimé Giral before hammering Toulouse in the quarter-finals will only have reinforced that belief. Now they can show they have what it takes to go one further stride along the road and emulate their heroes of 2006 and 2008 by reaching the final.

Penney did not mention that to the media this week, it did not suit the game he was playing, but you can sure he will have been hammering home that message to players in the privacy of their team room and out on the training field.

He will have told them to continue to believe. He will have given them more than just the fighting chance of the underdog he portrayed them as and he will have reminded them they have what it takes to create something special in Marseille tomorrow afternoon.

“It’s not hopeless,” Penney conceded for one brief moment during his press conference on Tuesday, “there is hope there. There are things and they will be looking at us and seeing a lot of things as well.

“It’s just about tiny moments in time when someone capitalises on one of those little fractures and creates a breach and creates scoring opportunities. In games like this, there are usually only a few and if you are the team that capitalises on them the best, you will have the more positive outcome.”

The odds may be stacked against them but Munster will hit the ground running at Stade Vélodrome tomorrow knowing they can take their opportunities.