Ronan O’Gara confident Munster can put it up to ‘the best team in Europe’

The Ireland legend believes his old province now have an underappreciated attacking threat

O’Gara views Munster v Leinster as ‘the biggest game in Irish rugby’ and says Saturday’s clash ‘means rugby is certainly back with a bang’. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Munster may be underdogs when the Guinness PRO14 season resumes against league kingpins Leinster on Saturday but Ronan O’Gara believes his old side can go toe-to-toe with anybody, including the team he believes are the best in Europe.

Defending PRO14 champions and runaway leaders at the top of Conference B, Leinster spent lockdown knowing they had already secured a home semi-final.

O’Gara recognises they are the standard setters and for his native province, still striving to top Conference A and book a home berth in the last four, there will be no forgiveness for a slow start behind closed doors at Aviva Stadium.

“It’s a great match because I think Leinster are the best team in Europe,” La Rochelle’s head coach said yesterday during a call hosted by Guinness to celebrate the return of rugby.

“They are an exceptional team and they have been for a long time. They set standards.

“Obviously Munster being my club, it’s a game that there is no easing into. It’s still one of the biggest games in Europe and it’s an unbelievable game for people to have after 175 days of a break.

“It’s always been a special fixture and I think it’s the biggest game in Irish rugby. It’s one that means rugby is certainly back with a bang. You couldn’t get a better game. The timing of it is perfect too.

“There will be no easing into this. It is different to other pre-seasons. I would expect probably teams to be better prepared because they’ve had a lot of time together to iron out a lot of their detail, to get kind of team runs against each other.” 

In a fixture generally regarded as a clash between Munster forward power and a flamboyant Leinster backline, the Ireland legend believes his old province have an underappreciated attacking threat, particularly now Johann van Graan’s team has been boosted by the arrival of South African World Cup-winning duo Damian de Allende and RG Snyman.

“I think the skill levels on view are, you know, you take Jordan Larmour and Keith Earls, both of them can make you look silly in a small area of space.

“I think there is probably a little bit of underappreciation of how good Munster backs can be. You look at their personnel and go through it, you can have Conor Murray, you can have JJ (Hanrahan), Joey Carbery, de Allende or (Rory) Scannell with (Chris) Farrell in the centre; you have (Andrew) Conway, Earls and one or two for 15, so they’ve incredible competition.

“That will be where Munster will look to get an improvement out of this term. They have a backline that can compete with the best in Europe so they’ll want to show that from the off.” The arrival this summer of giant Springbok lock Snyman and powerful centre de Allende, though, can be a gamechanger for Munster, O’Gara believes.

“It was a massive statement and the biggest bit of business in world rugby, and that reflects well on Munster as a club. With that, there will be a big expectancy on the two boys but I don’t think that will weigh too heavily on them. They’re World Cup winners, they’ll take it in their stride and they’ll just look to add to the team at first.

“De Allende was really, really good at the World Cup. You’d be surprised at that level, the difference one player can make but having two players, especially in different (positions), an enforcer up front and, especially at Munster, a 12 is really important.

“They may not find their feet straight away, but you’d be thinking by next May they will... I know there are different seasons going on and it’s hard to process that because there is a bit to take away in the next two months with silverware, but from Munster’s point of view, they’re not in the European Cup and they want to be challenging and winning that, potentially, in 11 months’ time. So those boys will be absolutely crucial and they should have found their feet by then.” 

Rugby will restart in Ireland against a backdrop of a new spike in Covid-19 cases, including a first case within the game with a Munster academy player testing positive last week.

Six more squad members, including one senior professional, were asked to self-isolate as potential close contacts through social and household settings and O’Gara underlined the fine line being walked when he warned just “one person can bring the whole thing down”.

Another round of Covid-19 testing took place in the provinces yesterday with results expected in midweek but the Leinster-Munster clash at the Aviva is not believed to be under threat.

There is also anxiety in France ahead of the new Top-14 season next month given the reporting of 30 cases at Stade Francais last week.

O’Gara is preparing for a pre-season clash with Toulouse this Saturday but said it only took one member of staff to derail the restart project.

“The information we’ve received from our medical experts here is that you don’t know when or where the virus could hit so you have to be extremely disciplined in your behaviour in terms of your mask and cleaning your hands at every possible opportunity,” O’Gara said.

“So in that regard, you’re very aware of your responsibilities and also of informing your players of their responsibilities but other than that I try and control what I can control and what we can control in our environment but people when they leave the building, you have absolutely no idea what they’re doing and who they’re engaging with so in that case, one person can bring the whole thing down.”