Case for the defence is clear, now Munster must show their teeth

Tries have been hard to come of late but as Exeter pitch up for mouth-watering return, it's time for van Graan's side to cut loose

More to come: Munster's Jack O'Donoghue speaks to the team after last week's narrow first leg defeat in Exeter.  Photo: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

It has been an uplifting week for those with an eye on Munster’s future but it is the here and now that serves as a reminder of current pressures facing the province.

The visit of Exeter Chiefs with a five-point lead at the midway point of a gripping two-legged Heineken Champions knockout tie leaves this contest finely balanced. Munster return to home field at Thomond Park with the promise of a crowd of more than 20,000 to roar them on, buoyed by Tuesday’s announcement that Graham Rowntree had been appointed to succeed Johann van Graan as head coach this summer.

A week after a dispiriting 34-19 defeat on the same pitch at the hands of Leinster in the United Rugby Championship, Munster also changed the narrative somewhat with a gutsy defensive display in Sandy Park to limit the Chiefs to two tries and a 13-8 win in this aggregate-score match-up.

As losses go, it was an acceptable outcome when treated as the half-time score in a 160-minute battle with a home leg to come. Indeed, van Graan was in bullish mood last Saturday night in Devon when he surmised that Munster only needed a converted try back in Limerick to recoup the deficit and regain control of their bid for a quarter-final berth.

Yet tries have been hard to come by of late, just one scored against both Leinster and Exeter in the last two games. In three European games against the Chiefs, Munster have managed just two tries and not topped 10 points since the first meeting away in October 2018.

That the Chiefs were so profligate in attack last weekend and so rigid in their decision-making to repeatedly spurn three-point kicking corners in favour of a lineout maul that Munster coped admirably with is a reason for home optimism. Yet Munster’s offensive weapons are hardly fizzing and getting the scoreboard moving will be their chief concern this afternoon.

They gave Exeter a 10-0 start at Sandy Park and when the tide turned in the second half and both Olly Woodburn and Patrick Schickerling were sin-binned, Munster made heavy weather of their 15-13 advantage for the bones of 10 minutes that was won only 5-3. Stuart Hogg’s long-range drop goal pre-empted a much-needed yet unconverted try from Shane Daly, who joined CJ Stander in that first-round pool game in 2018 as the only Munster men to cross the line against today’s opposition.

Little has altered in the Exeter mindset since that first meeting, even if some of the law changes implemented in the meantime have blunted some of the primary weapons in the arsenal developed by astute director of rugby Rob Baxter which took them to the European title in 2020.

“They’ve got a serious pack and they play an expansive game of rugby,” former Munster back-rower Tommy O’Donnell said of the challenges of playing them, as he did in 2018-19. “They like to move you around the park and they’re very good at holding onto the ball as well, which is really frustrating, while playing a really wide game.

“They know their system inside out so they’re tough to play against. You’ve got to defend hard and take your opportunities.” 

The current Munster team showed they can defend as well as any team, despite two first-half lapses in that first leg. Taking their opportunities not so much. Yet van Graan has been able to bring back a lot of big-game experience with the returns to fitness from injury of captain Peter O’Mahony and fly-half Joey Carbery and from illness in the case of left wing Simon Zebo.

They rejoin a team showing five changes from the side which started in Exeter while the Chiefs have been forced to travel to Ireland, where they have not won in four attempts, without hip injury victim Sam Simmonds. The England and Lions No.8 is a big loss to Baxter’s hopes of progress but the Chiefs boss will have his side bristling for their mission in Limerick and his words this week suggested a little displeasure with the narrative for this tie emanating from these shores.

“People forgot we won the first leg back then,” Baxter said. “Yes, it’s a similar scenario, but like then, all we are focused on is winning two games of rugby. We did what we had to win the first game and we did what we had to do to win the second game. Our approach this weekend has to be very similar.

“Sometimes you can make things really complicated for yourselves if you look into doing this or that. Personally, I think the teams that will do well in this round of the competition will be the teams who win both legs.

“It’s not like we’ve not been in this situation before, we’ve experienced this a fair bit, both in the Premiership and in Europe, and it’s created a challenge which I know our lads have embraced. I want our lads to go over there and relish being in this environment and testing themselves at the very top end.” 

Challenges for visiting teams do not come much bigger than in a Champions Cup night at Thomond Park and the returns of O’Mahony, Carbery and Zebo are much-needed boosts for the home side. In turn, that augments the replacements, six forwards and two backs once again, with the rising talents of Alex Kendellen, as the in-form Jack O’Donoghue switching from six to No.8, and fly-half Ben Healy poised to join fellow young guns Craig Casey and Tom Ahern off the bench.

There is a welcome start for young loosehead prop Josh Wycherley, meaning a first time starting alongside his brother, lock Fineen Wycherley, in a European tie. It will be a special afternoon for that West Cork family. The hope is that feeling will be replicated across Munster come 5pm.

MUNSTER: M Haley; K Earls, C Farrell, D de Allende, S Zebo; J Carbery, C Murray; J Wycherley, N Scannell, J Ryan; J Kleyn, F Wycherley; P O’Mahony - captain, J Hodnett, J O’Donoghue.

Replacements: D Barron, J Loughman, S Archer, J Jenkins, T Ahern, C Casey, B Healy, A Kendellen.

EXETER CHIEFS: S Hogg; O Woodburn, H Slade, I Whitten, T O’Flaherty; J Simmonds, S Maunder; A Hepburn, J Yeandle – captain, H Williams; J Gray, S Skinner; D Ewers, J Kirsten, J Vermuelen.

Replacements: J Innard, B Keast, P Schickerling, R Capstick, S Grondona, J Maunder, T Hendricksen, J Hodge.

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)