Van Graan on Munster's astonishing victory: 'We’ll enjoy it first of all and then reflect on it'
Keith Earls charges forward during Munster’s stunning Heineken Champions Cup win over Clermont Auvergne at the Stade Marcel-Michelin.
When Johann van Graan unleashed a triumphant double fist pump at full-time, you could tell it came from the heart.
Speaking to the late last month in an interview to mark his third anniversary as Munster head coach Johann van Graan was asked for the moments that had given him the most satisfaction.
He began by reeling off a list of standout results, including European wins such as the home quarter-final triumphs over Toulon and Toulouse. The only one on the road the South African had cited had been at another grand old rugby theatre, Welford Road, but this win at Marcel-Michelin comfortably tops that December 2017 victory over a Leicester Tigers team on the wane.
This was on another level. Munster stormed the fortress of ASM Clermont Auvergne on Saturday night, against a heavyweight team at the height of its considerable powers having put Bristol to the sword on their travels a week earlier. What is more, it came on a ground where Bordeaux-Begles almost five years ago had been the only visiting victors in Clermont’s previous 32 home pool matches.
Yet it had threatened to deliver one of those nightmare away days that has also been a feature of Munster’s Champions Cup experience in recent seasons.
It looked as if van Graan’s ever-present optimism would be undermined from the first whistle as Munster knocked on straight from kick-off and Peceli Yato bulldozed through a disintegrating red line of defence before his sublime offload out of an actual tackle put in Alivereti Raka for the opening try on 26 seconds.
The sin-binning of Shane Daly and the accompanying award of a penalty try to the home side on six minutes came with the ominous foreboding that accompanied Stade Francais’ demolition job on Anthony Foley’s side in Paris in January 2016.
And at 28-9, as Camille Lopez sent over the conversion of Clermont’s fourth try in 24 minutes, it looked as if the gulf between Munster and European club rugby’s upper echelons was as wide as it had been during any of the last four meetings with a full-strength Saracens.
Yet this was not going to be another one of those days to prompt stinging criticism from outside and introspection from within. This was a comeback for the ages.
Mike Haley’s finish of an excellent attacking move off a 28th-minute lineout gave a glimpse of the progress made under incoming senior coach Stephen Larkham as forwards not only executed the set-piece but combined seamlessly with the backs in open play to set up the try.
JJ Hanrahan’s faultless delivery from the kicking tee either side of half-time kept his side ticking over on the scoreboard as Munster began to claw their way back into this game, 28-16 at the interval, 28-25 on the hour mark. The fly-half’s inability to dispatch points under pressure in the past 12 months had contributed to disappointments at home to Racing 92, and in August’s PRO14 semi-final loss to Leinster, but he would come up trumps in Clermont.
You could call it ticker. Larkham would, and it was at the heart of this victory. It has rarely deserted Munster on their grand European odyssey but on Saturday it was allied to the new arrows both Larkham and forwards coach Graham Rowntree have added to the quiver and it was an irresistible combination.
It was Rowntree’s pack that administered the knockout blow aided by Clermont indiscipline which had seen flankers Judicael Cancoriet and then replacement Thibaud Lanen sin-binned. The latter penalty went to the corner and led to CJ Stander’s 70th-minute try off the resulting lineout maul with Hanrahan’s conversion sending Munster into the lead for the first time at 32-31.
Stander had saved his side’s bacon earlier in the piece when he brilliantly turned the dangerous Yato in the tackle to hold him up over the tryline as Clermont threatened to run riot. By the 74th minute, as hooker Adrien Pélissié was being choke-tackled, the Munster No.8 was grinning from ear to ear before referee Matthew Carley had even awarded a scrum to the visitors. It was Clermont who were unravelling, while Munster celebrated a new hero in academy prop Josh Wycherley.
He had only been handed his first European start by van Graan on Thursday night, once it became clear that Munster’s loosehead injury crisis had deepened with the loss of James Cronin. And on Saturday he had been unceremoniously launched off his feet by renowned tighthead enforcer Rabah Slimani at the first scrum.
Yet Wycherley saw off the France veteran and then his replacement Silipi Falatea by winning the 75th-minute scrum penalty that led to the winning try. It was a triumphant moment for the prop, followed by another for fellow replacement, hooker Kevin O’Byrne, who touched down from another powerful drive on 77 minutes.
The Munster set-piece had dominated and Hanrahan put the game beyond the hosts with his conversion.
It was his ninth successful kick from nine and for Munster a ninth consecutive victory at the start of 2020-21. Leinster visit Thomond Park on St Stephen’s night when one of the old rivals will have to surrender their 100% starts but January can’t come soon enough for Munster now. Clermont visit Limerick on the 16th before Munster go to Harlequins, both of which promise to be battles royal.
The boss was not thinking that far ahead, though.
“I think we’ll enjoy the win first of all and then reflect on it. It’s a big win for the club,” Van Graan said. “We haven’t won in France for three years and Clermont have won 31 of their last 32 pool games here.
“So for us as a team, as a club, as a coaching group, a massive win and specifically in the way that we did it. Look, we’ll enjoy tonight, we’ll travel back and we start again on Monday.”
More memorable European experiences may be in the offing but van Graan will know his players have to finish the job and reach at least the quarter-finals for this historic first success at Stade Marcel Michelin to mean more than purely a famous Munster win.
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