New team, new start, but familiar objectives for Munster
Munster knew the day would come when they would have to march into Europe behind someone other than Paul O’Connell.
They had planned and hoped they would at least have his natural successor as captain, Peter O’Mahony, in place to take up the charge. But it is nevertheless a fresh and ambitious outfit being sent out by head coach Anthony Foley against Benetton Treviso today that has made no secret of its collective desire to forge a path of its own in the Champions Cup this season.
The odds may be increasingly stacked against Irish provinces regaining the dominance in Europe they enjoyed during the last decade, before Toulon’s money and recruitment took control of the continent’s premier club competition.
The finances throughout French rugby and the desire of English clubs to catch up by loosening the salary cap restrictions in place in the Premiership mean Munster, Leinster and Ulster may remain former champions for some time to come. Yet the economic realities have done nothing to stifle ambition on these shores and nowhere is that more evident than in southernmost province.
The draw has been as kind as it could have been in the second season of this streamlined successor to the Heineken Cup, certainly kinder than the fates which befell Leinster or Ulster. And while French champions Stade Francais and English powerhouse Leicester lie in wait, Munster’s Pool 4 programme kicks off against a struggling Treviso side without a Pro12 win this season.
Drawing an Italian side has been an all too rare occurrence for Munster, this is the first time since 2009/10, and in a competition now reduced to 20 teams the presence of Treviso in a four-team pool means there is a real chance of a quarter-final berth opening up as one of the three best runner-ups from the five groups.
Which makes securing all five available points imperative this evening and away in January. Both the Tigers and Stade will be equally determined to do the same and though, out of respect for their opponents, Munster have played down talk of bonus points you can be sure in private their importance has been made all too plain.
It is certainly well within the capabilities of this Munster team, which in the past two weeks may have had to hang on in unusual circumstances for hard-fought league wins over both Ulster and Edinburgh but is 10 places and 23 points better off in the Pro12 standings than today’s visitors.
And with a visit to Paris to take on Stade Francais looming tomorrow week, the need to hit the ground running this evening is doubly important.
“It doesn’t matter what competition you enter, it’s all about momentum,” Foley said.
“You often hear it around Six Nations, World Cups, Guinness Pro12, everybody’s looking for momentum to get into the competition. We’re no different.
“We’re fortunate we’ve got our first game at home and we need to... historically, you look at the home games in Europe across every team and every team at home wants to win their first game.” Munster’s head coach cuts a much more relaxed figure a year into the role having succeeded Rob Penney in the pre-season of 2014. The lessons of a difficult first season which saw him preside over a failure to reach the quarter-finals, victims of a terrible pool draw with Saracens and Clermont Auvergne, appear to have been absorbed and Foley is satisfied the early stages of the Pro12 campaign, yielding six wins and one defeat on the road at Scarlets on October 23, have put Munster in the right spot heading into his second tilt at the Champions Cup.
He has been happy with portions of recent performances, the first 75 minutes against Scarlets, the second-half against Ulster and the opening period at Edinburgh. He is pleased at having added a layer of depth to his playing group by blooding a group of academy and development players over the first seven games and Foley is content enough to claim his largely healthy squad were “steadily on an upward curve at the moment” and going into Europe “in a good position”.
“It’s about us now getting our performance right against Treviso which is going to be a very tricky fixture.”
Well it might be tricky, but for how long depends on Munster. Against Treviso in Cork on the opening night of the Pro12 on September 6, the Italians went in at half-time with a 7-6 lead before two tries from CJ Stander saved the day in an 18-13 victory and Foley has warned the Italians will be beter again as they now reinforced with their Azzurri World Cup contingent led by captain Alessandro Zanni.
Yet this will also be a stronger, more fluent Munster side with new boys Francis Saili at outside centre and Mark Chisholm in the second row bedding in nicely, a back row of Stander, Jack O’Donoghue and Dave O’Callaghan knitting well and World Cup returnees Conor Murray and Keith Earls home to boost the backline.
It should be way too much for Treviso, particularly with a Munster team in the mood to seize the day.
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