Heineken Cup: Munster look on bright side despite draw from hell

They made the Heineken European Cup semi-final draw in the Sugar Club in Dublin last night but there was little sweetness in the air when Munster were drawn last from the hat and handed just the match they didn't want — a meeting on French soil on the weekend of April 21-22 with star-studded Stade Francais.

The other semi-final involves the two English clubs, Gloucester and Leicester Tigers, and that game almost certainly goes ahead at the Madejski Stadium.

That won't be confirmed until tomorrow at the earliest — and that's when we can expect news of the venue, date and time for the Stade Francais-Munster game.

Predictably, Munster coach Declan Kidney and skipper Mick Galwey were playing down the significance of what most will regard as the draw from hell and the more positive were also pointing out that nobody gave Munster a chance 12 months ago at the same stage against Toulouse in Bordeaux and yet they cruised home with something to spare.

The major talking point right now is the venue for the match. Not surprisingly, Stade Francais would like to play it in Paris, preferably at Parc des Princes, the former international ground which is alongside their own Stade Jean Bouin, although their Australian coach, John Connolly, more or less accepting that was out of the question, mentioned the state of the art Stade de France, now the home of France's home matches, as their preferred option.

Lending weight to that view was the comment of European Rugby Committee Public Relations Officer Rob Cole who pointed out: "You want to play these games where they will attract the biggest attendance." And like it or not, there are many Munster supporters, a large percentage of them female, who would relish nothing better than a weekend in Paris in the spring! But this is a major rugby occasion and the venue has to have a major bearing on the eventual outcome.

ERC will meet today and the outcome of their deliberations may well be revealed tomorrow. You wouldn't need to be a rocket scientist to know that Munster would like the game to be played as far away from Paris as possible, although coach Declan Kidney insisted the matter was out of their hands and they wouldn't be making any effort to influence the decision. On the other hand, you have to suspect that the Munster management, clever people that they are, know a thing or two.

"I've just been speaking to one of the organisers and he mentioned Lille," revealed Mick Galwey. "That's in the north of France just off the Euro tunnel route and good for the supporters. The only thing they could tell us was that they would decide at the earliest possible opportunity. I don't think it is going to be in Paris, that would be a home draw for Stade Francais, but the carrot for us is that if we beat them, we have a home final."

Galwey wasn't a member of the Irish squad that flopped in the 1999 World Cup in Lens — which just happens to be no more than twenty kilometres down the motorway from Lille — and the town in which some of us stayed on that less than memorable occasion! On the plus side, too, is the fact that Munster beat Stade Francais 27-10 in last year's quarter-finals, albeit at Thomond Park, and surely that has to be a source of confidence for the Munster squad.

"Of course, although that was the one game when we had a great start, we got two tries in the first ten minutes and led 12-0 playing into the breeze and in the second half we just kicked penalties," said Galwey. "But they're probably a better side now, certainly a better-coached side with John Connolly one of the best in the world at the helm and I'm sure he'll have his homework done.

"We just have to be positive. We have been down this road before, we had the same situation last year, we've got a French team away and it's a tough draw.

Stade Francais have been the most impressive team in the Heineken Cup so far, they've scored the most points and the most tries and the reality is that now we're playing the best team in the competition in their own country. From a player's point of view, we just have to get on with it, any team would have been a tough draw, a home game would have been nice for the players and especially for the supporters and we just have to get on with it."

Galwey also insisted that the reverse of the draw, in other words Stade Francais at Lansdowne Road, was the preferred option because victory would mean a Lansdowne Road final. But he also made a lot of sense in pointing out that the English clubs have always given Munster trouble, not least Northampton in last year's decider and Bath in the Pool game this season.

Munster coach Declan Kidney was his usual phlegmatic self in facing up to the draw. He insisted they would play the match wherever they were asked to do so and went on: "We're away from home and the players have to travel, something we have to build into our plans, and the biggest regret is that the supporters who have to dip into their pockets again, that's the biggest disappointment of the draw. Stade have been favourites from the start and while we beat them last year, they were without a few back-row players then, including the French number eight Juillet and the fact that it's over in France would probably mean a fifteen to twenty point swing on last year's game."

Given that it's more than another two months to the game, Kidney smiled and insisted: "It's better to be in the competition rather than out of it but there's a lot of rugby to be played in the meantime. This is our final. Last year is history and we had surprise on our side then.

"We sprung Eddie Halvey on them and that had a big effect on the line-out. John Connolly will make sure that doesn't happen this time."

Meanwhile, Kidney's counterpart John Connolly, one-time Queensland and Old Belvedere coach, accepted that while he always wanted to play in his home country. "I don't think it's the advantage people make it out to be. It doesn't make that much difference in the big stadiums. I hope it's in the Stade de France just as if we were away to Munster, we would have played at Lansdowne Road. I think we've got to give the tournament the kind of stadiums it deserves."