Relaxed Van Graan gets back to basics
Johann van Graan gave no indication about the quality of his Sunday night’s sleep but given the Munster boss watched a playback of Saracens’ seven-try demolition of Glasgow Warriors before bedtime, a fit of the night terrors would have been understandable.
No sooner had van Graan given thanks for his side’s remarkable rabbit-from-the-hat routine to defeat quarter-final rivals Edinburgh in Murrayfield on Saturday, than Saracens had set up a re-run of their 2008 and 2017 European last-four meetings with a 56-27 hammering of the Scots in north London.
The 2019 Heineken Champions Cup semi-finals get under way on April 20 at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena, two years on from Sarries’ dismantling of van Graan’s predecessor Rassie Erasmus’ Munster in Dublin when a 26-10 final score gave little hint of the gulf in class between the English Premiership big guns and the Irish province.
Munster have upped their game since, yet the sides’ respective quarter-final performances last weekend suggest there is still some way for van Graan’s side to travel in that regard.
While Munster spent most of Saturday’s Murrayfield encounter on the back foot and defending heroically, their attacking threat was restricted to a moment of pressure-instigated opportunism from Keith Earls’ tap-and-go opening try and the same wing’s excellent finish in the 70th minute.
Saracens, meanwhile, trampled Glasgow underfoot on their 4G surface at Allianz Park and left van Graan under no illusions about the size of the challenge facing his side in 18 days.
“I actually watched it last night,” the wide-awake and relaxed Munster head coach said yesterday as he began preparing for Friday night’s Guinness PRO14 visit to Cork of Cardiff Blues.
It was a very good game of rugby, I’m very impressed by Saracens. Over the last eight or nine years, they have been one of the European sides that have consistently been there, playing in finals, playing in semi-finals, quarter-finals.
“The way they went about their business on Saturday afternoon was very clinical, excellent kicking game, dominant pack of forwards, that’s mostly the English pack and then you have guys like Schalk Burger and Vincent Koch who I have worked with before.
“Even to lose someone like Owen Farrell before the game, (Alex) Goode coming in there at 10, Liam Williams at 15, he picked up where he left off from the Six Nations, a pretty formidable side.
“To give Glasgow 50 points in a quarter-final takes some doing. Glasgow is one of THE sides of Europe, so very impressive.
“One of the most impressive things about them is they are very calm. Not a lot of things seem to faze them, you just got to look at the players in their side, it’s world-class players all across the pitch and a real belief in what they do.
“Luckily, that is three weeks away. We have a massive game on Friday night against Cardiff and then Treviso, who have been playing excellent rugby so, in a sense, it’s very good that we are straight back into PRO14 and all the games left in this season are tough.
"Even after the European semi-final, we have Connacht, every game matters now.”
The joy/relief/exhaustion at full-time on Saturday, some battle! #EDIvMUN #SUAF 🔴 pic.twitter.com/UfYk3Y0tga
— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) April 1, 2019
While yesterday’s post-game review gave the Munster squad plenty to focus minds on given their lack of possession, a penalty count in double figures and precious little in the way of attacking play, van Graan was also proud of their defensive effort of restricting a dominant Edinburgh side to a single try.
“Relief, thankful, grateful,” he said of his overriding emotions.
“We knew from day one that Edinburgh over the last two seasons have played some very good rugby and play a real pressure game. With their kicking game they pin you in your own half, as do we plan.
“It was two similar types of games against each other and they had a few opportunities early on which put us under massive pressure.
"They decided to go to the corner and we stopped them. We conceded a yellow card, lost our fly-half and lost our openside, two pretty important players and I thought we handled and managed the pressure pretty well.
“That first play of ours to turn them then with the same amount of pressure and Earlsy scoring there, and then adapting at half-time and winning that game, it was a feeling of thankfulness for winning that game and so glad for the players specifically and for the management and for Munster that we came through that game.”
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