Ronan O'Gara: Toulouse will come to Dublin locked and loaded but Munster's red wall of noise can be telling
GOOD OLD DAYS: Munster's Ronan O'Gara, cheered on by a sea of red, crosses the line to score his side's second try in the 2006 Heineken Cup semi-final win over Leinster at Lansdowne Road.
YOU might detect a stadium-based thread in this week’s dispatch. I would love to say it is a deliberate theme, but who am I kidding?
I will have a perfect vantage point Saturday night to examine Toulouse’s credentials ahead of their visit to Dublin to face Munster a week tomorrow. La Rochelle meet the reigning European champions on French prime time television at 9.05 (8.05 Irish time) with the game switched to Le Stadium in Toulouse for an expanded capacity.
Both sides are targeting the points to guarantee a top-six play-off berth in the Top 14 while also mindful of the respective Champions Cup quarter-finals a week later. There’s no tweaking or resting players at the sharp end of the campaign. We have all toiled too hard for 23 weekends to do that. Toulouse will have all their French Grand Slammers back Saturday, so they should be raring for grass come Lansdowne Road.
When the circumstances took Munster against Toulouse away from Limerick, I feared it would be the marginal shift that turned the tie in the champions’ favour. Now I’m not sure. Dublin is not Munster but the fact that someone in Munster Rugby was awake to the opportunity of an incentivised transport price offer for supporters has recalibrated the odds back in Munster’s direction. With 25,000 tickets already sold, it will be a sea of red at the stadium and that’s the important thing.
The sod is equally good in Lansdowne Road as it is in Thomond, the posts are the same width and now the stands will be heaving with Munster colour. It puts a lot of things back in the plus column for the Munster lads. There is nothing as draining as the momentum killer of a half-full ground to take the all-important home advantage away in rugby. Toulouse lie sixth in the Top 14, four points behind us in third. Because they were the final qualifier from the Champions Cup group phase, they are on the road now for as long as they stay in Europe, so they will be mind-framed for that once they get tomorrow done and dusted. However, if Munster can turn the Aviva into an absolute colosseum – as they have done in the past – it could be really interesting.
My parents have been out here in France for the past two weeks, and they’re every bit as invested in watching live rugby as the rest of us. They time the trip to be at our last two home games against Bordeaux-Begles and Perpignan and we also sat down together to watch Munster’s game in Belfast last week.
Is it a coincidence that Munster produced an energetic, focused performance the week that the head coach issue was resolved? There has to be something in that. Munster looked really on-message in almost every aspect of the game against Ulster, including adding some badly needed width to their attack. We did a squiggle in this column a while back about that same issue and not playing out to the 15m channels. Last Friday Munster were playing out to the fives.
But more than that, it was the manner of the performance that augurs well for the visit of Toulouse. The biggest single takeaway was how it shows the value of a sweet Joey Carbery. With him on song, playing games without the worry and the mental handbrake of injury concerns, the flow was so evident. It helped too that Craig Casey was so good at nine, that de Allende, Farrell and Earlsie were in sync and that Shane Daly offered such attacking intent and invention. Ravenhill doesn’t give up many visiting wins and it primes Munster perfectly for the season-defining week of their campaign.
THERE was a lot of media hype this week in France for ‘Journee 500’ – which is the 500-day countdown to the 2023 World Cup in France. When I saw the venues confirmed for Ireland’s summer tour to New Zealand, it was the sort of itinerary, opposition and opportunity that you couldn’t even write away for. A three-test series in Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington is everything Andy Farrell and his management will require as their countdown begins. The surfaces are superb in Eden Park and the Cake Tin but in New Zealand’s winter, weather conditions will be a factor there, while in Dunedin, where it’s an indoor arena, Ireland will get the opportunity to road test a few things with the guarantee of a dry ball.
Ireland haven’t played in New Zealand in a decade. In terms of World Cup planning, Farrell and co could have 25-28 of their 33-man squad for 2023 all but pinned down after the summer series. There’s that much emphasis around it. Plus, presuming they bring up to 40 players down under, the lads getting a run against a very competitive Maoris in midweek will also be champing at the bit. The Maoris will ensure that there’s not much time for boat cruises between the tests.
Ireland are also heading into the biggest rugby microwave on the planet in New Zealand, where the heat from last November’s tour losses to Ireland and France is yet to properly subside. All Black watchers I’ve been chatting to down there this week were wondering what sort of shake-up the NZRU would impose on Ian Foster’s backroom team. That there was such a delay in the contract extensions of Foster’s assistants, John Plumtree, Greg Feek and Brad Mooar only added to the frenzy. Ultimately the NZ power-brokers beefed up Foster’s management with the addition of scrum coach Mike Cron to support forwards coach Plumtree and scrum coach Feek, and Waikato’s Andrew Strawbridge, who will work as a skills consultant.
Management was fairly eviscerated in the review of the tour of Europe, not just for the losses but for the narrowness of the All Blacks game plan. Of course, in all of this, there is Joe Schmidt’s addition as a ‘selector’. He’s not an actual coach on the ticket but it will be no surprise if he is on the grass come game day, which is fascinating. Joe in a tracksuit is a serious animal. The task for Foster, now is to ensure that the expertise of Cron, Strawbridge and especially Schmidt are harnessed to develop the All Blacks play into several different styles.
It's advisable to remember at this juncture that New Zealand has never lost a test series at home to another nation so it’s the ultimate examination for Ireland in those three tests – but the ultimate school too.
Five hundred days is still a long time away for us all. It’s a season and a half away in Top 14 terms and the only day that matters at the moment is the next day, away to Toulouse on Saturday. It’s peculiar to see all the new signings for next season reported in the French press with the clubs unable to confirm or deny. There are regulations here that stipulate you can’t announce signings until season’s end but I have no idea of the reason for same. All I know is we are very happy with our business and the players who will maintain our high-tempo game into next season.
Let’s see that high-tempo game at Le Stadium in Toulouse, says you….
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