Old values bring new possibilities for Munster
It did not matter they had not reached the heights their talents are capable of scaling, this performance borne of a dogged stubbornness, an admirable collective spirit and a scrappy refusal to be beaten was just as effective in seeing Rassie Erasmus’s side through to the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
Whether that gutsiness is enough to propel Munster deeper into the competition is another matter and a debate that can wait for the time being, for Erasmus must now focus on preparing his players for this Saturday’s final pool game, a home encounter with French champions Racing 92. A repeat of the resounding bonus-point victory in the rearranged Paris fixture nine days ago and Munster will give their hopes of reaching the semis a significant boost for it will secure an all-important home quarter-final. The evidence of Racing’s return to form on Saturday night, when they restored pride and collected their first European points of the campaign with a 34-3 win over Leicester Tigers at Stade Yves du Manoir, suggests that will not be the foregone conclusion many thought it might be, particularly given it will mark the return of Ronan O’Gara to Thomond Park.
Yet Munster were already on message at Scotstoun on Saturday their mission is far from accomplished.
“The players did well, and they deserve credit,” Erasmus said of reaching the last eight after two seasons of disappointment, “but I can see in their eyes they know that come Monday we will be playing Racing next week and some guys are going to be going into Ireland international games and the guys are talking about how we mustn’t lose our cohesiveness when we get back,” Erasmus said.
“And we’ve then got Pro12 in the meantime, the boys are definitely not looking at this and saying something is achieved. It is something achieved, but the target is a little bit further.”
For the time being there is much to admire about the resilience of a side which was on the back foot for so much of Saturday’s game but stayed in touch with their committed hosts on the scoreboard before securing the points with a decisive Francis Saili try eight minutes from the end.
Glasgow had come into the game bang in form under head coach Gregor Townsend and trailing Munster by three points in Pool 1 after home and away wins over Racing in December, the Scots were hopeful they could finally reach the quarters for the first time in their history.
They certainly threw everything they could at the visitors in front of sell-out crowd of 7,351 but every time they threatened through the prompting of fly-half Finn Russell, the explosive pace of full-back Stuart Hogg, Munster proved equal to the task, thwarting the home side with excellent defensive work despite being outgunned at the breakdown.
When that deficiency at the ruck translated into penalties, Munster were able to rebound, a three-pointer from either Russell or Hogg, from longer range matched by the boot of Tyler Bleyendaal. At half-time it was 6-6, by the hour mark, Russell had nudged Glasgow back in front at 12-9 and the Warriors were gathering momentum for a final push for victory.
Yet Munster got the lucky break that generally goes the way of confident, winning teams. On 66 minutes, Glasgow scrum-half Ali Price sent his box kick out on the full and Munster were handed a line-out on the home side’s 22. They had their platform to perform the smash and grab. Munster mauled towards the five-metre line then began to wear down the opposition defence until Duncan Williams, on temporarily with Conor Murray undergoing a Head Injury Assessment, sent the ball wide, eventually reaching the excellent Andrew Conway on the right wing only for his path to be checked by the outstretched arm of Hogg across his face. Conway was held up over the line but a yellow card for Hogg was inevitable under the new World Rugby guidelines. From the resulting penalty, Munster eschewed the three points and from the lineout the decision was vindicated as the ball came out of a ruck via Murray and Bleyendaal to Simon Zebo. The full-back offloaded in the tackle to Keith Earls, whose reverse pass found replacement centre Saili making a beeline for the left corner, executing his finish brilliantly as he rounded Tommy Seymour.
It was the one moment of brilliance but not the only one to savour. There is more than one way to win a game and Munster have the dog in them to grind it out. A month ago at Welford Road, Niall Scannell’s 75th-minute try had pushed Munster into a 15-14 lead only to throw it away at the death with a sloppy penalty punished by a long-range Owen Williams winner. This time they would not be denied and for eight minutes they defended with accuracy, efficiency and pure guts to book their place in the knockout rounds from a group in which Erasmus had declared his own side to be the weak link as he settled into his first season as director of rugby.
“I didn’t know what to expect to be honest with you,” he said. “I didn’t know the players well, I didn’t know my assistant coaches well, I didn’t know Ireland, Limerick well. We moved into a new High Performance Centre and that’s why I said at the first meeting that our challenge now is to take what we’ve got as coaches and players and maximise the potential. We’ll see where we get.
“And if we’d qualify for the quarter-finals, then I would have taken it. It’s really a great group of players with great work ethic and I had mixed thoughts about the pool because I didn’t know anybody here before I came. It’s satisfying to see that we’ve quality players and a management team to get us this far and now the challenge is to see how far we can go.”
There is clearly much to work on if Erasmus and his coaching team are to maximise that potential and the South African pinpointed poor tactical kicking and breakdown work as the weaknesses in Saturday’s performance.
“Potential is not just individual, it’s strategic as a team and, as a management team, making and executing a plan.
“Tonight, probably tactically we were only 50 to 60 per cent there, but then again we were 100 per cent maximising our guts.” They may be rough diamonds now, but we can only imagine how brightly they might shine after another period of such development under Erasmus and company.
S Hogg; T Seymour, M Bennett (N Grigg, 62), A Dunbar, L Jones; F Russell, A Price; G Reid (A Allan, 78), F Brown (P MacArthur, 62), Z Fagerson (D Rae, 78); T Swinson, J Gray, capt; R Harley, R Wilson, J Strauss (C Fusaro, 67).
Hogg 70-80mins
M Fagerson, G Hart, P Murchie.
S Zebo (I Keatley, 73); A Conway, J Taute (F Saili, 58), R Scannell, K Earls; T Bleyendaal, C Murray (D Williams, 65-70); D Kilcoyne (J Cronin, 48), N Scannell (R Marshall, 66), J Ryan (T Du Toit, 60); J Kleyn (B Holland, 54), D Ryan; P O’Mahony, capt (D Foley, 73), J O’Donoghue, CJ Stander.
Luke Pearce (England)
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
