Future can wait as van Graan and Munster hope to clear present dangers
Clock's ticking: Munster head Coach Johann Van Graan during training in Limerick this week
It has been a week of contract renewals and coaching additions in Munster but the future will have to wait a little longer as far as this current regime is concerned.
Incoming defence coach Denis Leamy’s appointment to Graham Rowntree’s new coaching ticket has helped further whet the appetite for what is to come but he has business still to attend to with Leinster while Keith Earls’ renewed commitment to Munster has added another endorsement to the next regime.
Tonight’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final against Ulster at Kingspan Stadium, though, is very much in the last-chance saloon category for Johann van Graan and the assistants who will depart alongside him when next their side loses, and the stakes cannot get much higher than that for a coaching ticket desperate to leave a legacy for their three years working together.
For the head coach there are five seasons’ toil on the line in Belfast tonight, the South African’s heartfelt efforts to drag the province back to the trophy-winning summit for the first time since 2011 having come up short in each of those campaigns to date, agonisingly so on many of those occasions. Only Declan Kidney has overseen more matches in charge, his 164 matches at the helm coming in two separate spells, but van Graan’s tenure will count for very little unless his side can stay alive in this competition for another three weeks.
Given the inconsistencies of this 2021-22 campaign and the contrast in performance shown over the last two games against Toulouse in Europe and then Leinster, you would not be totally surprised if the van Graan era came to an ignominious end this evening.
And yet.
Munster have shown time and again they have the depth of talent and the attacking intent to dazzle and dominate. That it has only shone through in patches is the source of much frustration but that their best performance to date came just two games ago, in the European quarter-final against Toulouse, will give that support base hope that it can come to the fore for one final push for silverware.
Munster built into that last-eight knockout tie with the defending champions in impressive fashion, rebounding from a chastening, no-show defeat at home to Leinster in the league to knock over Exeter Chiefs on aggregate in the Champions Cup, win at Ulster for the first time since 2016 and hammer Cardiff in Cork over successive weeks. Then, inspired by captain Peter O’Mahony’s heroic performance, they had Toulouse on the ropes but could not apply the finishing touches to eliminate Antoine Dupont’s men.
Their horrible exit via a penalty-kick contest at the Aviva Stadium must have had a serious impact on their performance in the same arena a fortnight later when Leinster, with their first team watching in the stands, scored yet another league victory over their southern neighbours to consign Munster to a sixth-place finish in the URC standings. That would certainly be the hope of van Graan, whose senior coach Stephen Larkham believes Munster are back on track heading into this do-or-die encounter buoyed by the memory of that recent 24-17 win at the Kingspan on April 22.
“We've got to make sure that we play the game that we want to play,” Larkham said. “We felt that we did that the last time we played against them, we felt that we controlled the territory quite well, we held the ball when we needed to hold the ball and we transferred the ball when we felt we didn't have good momentum. So it's going to be much of the same for us, making sure that our process, our systems are consistent throughout the game and like I said before, we're very conscious of their set-piece, their breakdown pressure and their kicking game.”
Having captain O’Mahony, Damian de Allende, Andrew Conway and Gavin Coombes back in harness tonight is undoubtedly a boost, though this game has come soon for Simon Zebo and Tadhg Beirne while Jack O’Donoghue is unavailable due to a back strain.
Ulster, just as hungry as the visitors to end an even longer trophy drought, make just one change from their last outing, a 24-21 final-round win over the Sharks a fortnight ago that secured their home draw this weekend but it is a significant one with in-form Mike Lowry missing out as Stewart Moore takes over at full-back.
Two desperate teams fighting to stay alive in a competition that offers one last shot at success, it may ultimately come down to who can best control that desperation, keep a cool head and do just what it takes to get over the line. Just please do not let this one go to penalties as well.
S Moore; R Baloucoune, J Hume, S McCloskey, E McIlroy; B Burns, J Cooney; A Warwick, R Herring, T O’Toole; A O’Connor, I Henderson – captain; Marcus Rea, N Timoney, D Vermeulen.
J Andrew, E O’Sullivan, G Milasinovich, K Treadwell, M Rea, N Doak, I Madigan, B Moxham.
M Haley; A Conway, C Farrell, D de Allende, K Earls; J Carbery, C Murray; J Wycherley, N Scannell, S Archer; Jean Kleyn, F Wycherley; P O’Mahony - captain, A Kendellen, G Coombes.
D Barron, J Loughman, J Ryan, J Jenkins, T Ahern, C Casey, B Healy, C Cloete.
Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
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