Opportunity knocks to vent Munster frustrations in URC derby

4 January 2022; Ben Healy during Munster rugby squad training at University of Limerick in Limerick. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

With all the discontented noise buzzing around Munster following their desperately poor performance at Connacht, Johann van Graan must surely know he needs to engineer a sharp improvement when Ulster visit Thomond Park on Saturday night.

Last Saturday’s 10-8 United Rugby Championship defeat in Galway left Van Graan’s team nine points adrift of Irish Shield leaders and current overall league table toppers Leinster and five behind this weekend’s derby rivals, with Munster at least having a game in hand on both provinces.

Yet it was the toothless nature of Munster’s approach that riled so many supporters and pundits alike and one of the most respected of voices in both camps, former captain Keith Wood summed up the external mood when he called via his regular appearance on Newstalk’s Off The Ball last Wednesday night for his former province to “change the thinking or change the coach”.

“There’s no point in talking about Munster’s attack, that doesn’t exist at the present moment in time,” Wood said. “I think we’re beginning to ruin some of the players, I’m finding it incredibly hard to watch. If there’s a bit of a disruption, then I’d rather the coaches went than stay and play that level of turgid nonsense.”

The Sportsground defeat represented back-to-back URC losses given it was Munster’s first league game in 10 weeks due to the November Test window, a Covid outbreak and two match postponements in South Africa and then the loss of the Leinster home fixture on St Stephen’s night due to a high number of positive cases in their camp.

Which made the New Year’s Day trip to Connacht more of a rude awakening than many supporters will have bargained for as their team failed to throw a punch and had just an opportunist try from Andrew Conway to cheer on what was an otherwise utterly miserable night. The blame swiftly fell upon Van Graan’s shoulders for the destabilising effect his decision to leave Munster and join Bath as the English side’s head coach next season was having on the squad’s ability to perform. The South African’s announcement in mid-December came at a terrible time, less than a month after a similar exit statement from senior coach Stephen Larkham, who will head home to Australia and the Brumbies this summer and serving to knock the wind out of Munster’s sails just as the province was looking to build momentum off the back of a heroic performance at Wasps when a Covid-hit squad of senior internationals and academy rookies scored a bonus-point Champions Cup win over a more experienced English side in Coventry.

It had been a promising glimpse into an exciting future with tries from 19-year-old academy full-back Patrick Campbell and academy hooker Scott Buckley, 21, two of the 12 debutants that afternoon. Yet the following week, as Munster began to reintegrate senior players who had come out of isolation following their ill-fated trip to South Africa, there was a reversion to type as Castres came to Limerick and effectively strangled the home side. That Munster edged the pool game 19-13 to make it two European wins from two was more down to Castres’ own limited ambitions than anything mustered by the men in red and now Van Graan must start once more from zero with a return trip to France looming six days after the Ulster clash.

That is why the head coach needs to lay down some foundations for Castres away in his selection this weekend if Munster are to have any hope of avoiding the frustrations that marked both of their most recent performances and, given Wood’s comments, Van Graan is to see out the remaining months of his contract.

The sympathy that came the way of Munster in the wake of their misfortunes both in South Africa and since their return gave way to mitigation for the squad rotation of the last two games.

There are still three senior players, backline trio Liam Coombes, Rory Scannell, and Simon Zebo, waiting for their first amounts of game time since October while others are still short of minutes as Munster prepare to play just their ninth game of the season in all competitions on the second Saturday of January.

Last week’s outcome was poor beyond any mitigating circumstances, however, and as forwards coach Graham Rowntree pointed out this week, no-one inside the camp has been making excuses for the performance at Connacht.

Rowntree credited the squad’s adaptability in trying and ever-changing circumstances but things need to improve considerably to beat an Ulster side on its way back from a Covid outbreak of its own that has seen them sidelined since December 17 and the forwards coach, who this week committed to a further two years at Munster, believes the squad has emerged with positivity renewed following Monday’s round of clear-the-air meetings at the High-Performance Centre in Limerick.

“It can only be good. It can only be good after a game of, well, frustrations,” Rowntree said. “It can only be good to get it all out on the table and clear the air and people air some things.

“It’s been the same in every environment I’ve ever been in coaching-wise, it can only be good getting that out and so far, so good.”