It’s time for real Munster to stand up and fight for glory

Which Munster will turn up at Scotstoun tonight?

It is a question even Conor Murray is unsure how to answer.

That it is being asked at all of Munster should be a concern, heading into this evening’s RaboDirect Pro12 semi-final against an in-form Glasgow.

Yet when the same squad of players can put Toulouse to the sword one week, then capitulate for 40 minutes to the Warriors the next; when it can run riot through Edinburgh’s defence and put 55 points on a home side, only to fall apart at the seams to a second-string Ulster side seven days later, the question is one that demands an answer.

To borrow the nursery rhyme about the little girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead, when Munster are good they are very, very good but when they are bad, they are horrid.

Head coach Rob Penney was putting it mildly this week when he described his side’s performance in losing 19-17 to Ulster at Thomond Park last Saturday as “a shambles”, admitting their infuriating inconsistency of late was “unique”, and scrum-half Murray was in no position to argue.

“There’s no excuse,” Murray said. “The coaches have given us every possible way of preparing well and getting set for big games and the smaller games the week after.

“And I think players have a huge role to play in that part and over the season, it’s there for everyone to see, it hasn’t been good enough and if we want to be considered a good team or a great team, we have to turn up week in, week out.

“I don’t know if it’s easy [to get over the Ulster game] because it’s been going on all year and it hasn’t been good enough, we haven’t been consistent enough.

“But it’s a semi-final ahead of us this weekend and we still are a confident team, we know we’re a good team and we can look back on plenty of good performances this year.

“It’s just you’d hope the better Munster team shows up this week rather than the one that showed up against Ulster or Glasgow a couple of weeks ago after Toulouse, that didn’t show any heart.

“It’s actually quite embarrassing to show up two home games in a row in Thomond and play like that.”

That Glasgow away in a semi-final should constitute, in Murray’s words, a big game rather than a smaller one, and that last week’s performance was so dire should be enough to provoke a reaction from this Munster outfit tonight, but Gregor Townsend’s side are no pushovers. They have reached the league play-offs for the third successive season, having won the most number of games, 18, albeit good enough only for second place behind Leinster. Nor will the fact Munster won 13-6 at Scotstoun on October 25 give Penney comfort, given that Glasgow have won their last eight Rabo matches and their last seven contests at home since Toulon beat them there in the Heineken Cup on January 18.

“They’re a talented side to break down,” Penney warned. “They’re well put together. So there’s not that many frailties and one of the things they’ve got is genuine pace in their back five or six players, so even if you do breach, they cover their fractures really efficiently.

“So... if we get impetuous and try and play miracle plays, they’ll hurt us. It’s cup rugby and only one team walks away with the spoils. To give ourselves a big chance we have to be on song and have to be really, really accurate in what we do.”

It is, indeed, do or die for Munster, and potentially Penney’s last throw of the dice as head coach before departing for Japan.

“That would be very disappointing, to have it end on that note,” he said.

“When the players are on song and everyone’s tuned in and we’re well connected and clear about what we’re trying to do, there hasn’t been a problem.

“When we get certain situations, where there has been disconnect in those areas, the performances are a reflection of that disconnection. I’d be really hopeful and really confident in the boys that that won’t be an issue this week.”

The New Zealander deserves nothing less after two seasons of “nearly” than for Good Munster to show up in Glasgow tonight and give him one last shot at some silverware.