Rowntree adamant Munster cannot 'stand still' after 'sticky' Stormers outing
KEEP ON MOVING: Munster head coach: Graham Rowntree. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
It is only two years since the Pro14 morphed into the United Rugby Championship and the big beasts from South Africa left Super Rugby behind and sought a future north of the Equator.
Munster have played the Stormers just four times in that period yet while the relationship is short and results look distinctly one-sided, it has all the hallmarks of a rivalry that will become one of the highlights of the URC calendar.
Munster stretched their winning run over the Cape Town franchise to four wins from four on Saturday night but it was a far from straightforward affair for Graham Rowntree’s men, and no more than anyone expected given last May’s nail-biting Grand Final between the sides.
“It’s another game developing into a very nice rivalry – except we don’t win them,” a philosophical Stormers head coach John Dobson said.
“The Munster-Stormers, it’s nice, and to come here a little bit under par and mix as well as we did in Thomond Park is nice.
“It’s fantastic. We’ve played four, lost four so I’m not quite sure (if it’s a rivalry) but I thought that performance from us will add to it. We haven’t got our World Cup players, please, it’s not excuses, we’ve got guys on first overseas tours and stuff like that so to come here and put in a performance like that gives us a lot of hope.
“In these conditions, in this great cathedral of rugby, it was good and I think we look forward to playing Munster next time with more players.”
The only shame is we will have to wait until 2024-25 for the next renewal. For this rematch at Thomond Park, 25 weeks on from that 19-14 away win in the Mother City, was a hard-fought, no-quarter-given contest that while it lacked the spectacle of try-scoring nevertheless delivered an absorbing encounter played out in difficult and sometime terrible conditions.
The game’s only try, a close-range first-half effort from Munster’s academy lock Edwin Edogbo that was converted by Jack Crowley, tells only part of the story as Munster got back to winning ways following the previous weekend’s defeat at Ulster.
Where they had been lacklustre and passive in Belfast, they brought intensity and physicality on their return to Limerick and boy was it needed. Munster were under pressure at the set-piece throughout, but the visitors were unable to make it count with Stormers No.8 Evan Roos was twice held up over the tryline early in the third quarter, with his opposite number Gavin Coombes involved in both tackles.
“A sticky team. An aggressive team. A gnarly team,” was Rowntree’s description of the Stormers. “Evan Roos, he’s everywhere. It’s like 15 Evan Roos’s on the field. If it isn’t a maul it seems to be Evan Roos coming from every angle around the field.
“They’re just sticky, and I mean that out of respect. I’m not sure when we play them again, but we’ll see.
“I just said to John Dobson there, crikey they turned up tonight. I felt they don’t like us, the Stormers. They turned up, they’ve got an edge to them, it was sticky, the breakdown, their power and we fought through it. Again, we got a win out of it. But we’ve got to be better.”
Munster face another, more established rival in derby opponents Leinster this Saturday at Aviva Stadium and Rowntree is anticipating a busy week on the training ground and in the treatment room following injuries to experienced back-row duo Jack O’Donoghue and captain Peter O’Mahony.
“The to-do list is quite large. Obviously, what bodies we can pick first. The big one for me, it keeps re-occurring, is the breakdown. It’s everything to us and the opposition. It’s just putting time in the tackle to stop opposition ruck speed; doing that legally.
“But it’s us, our ruck speed, it’s us clearing people out appropriately. I’ve noticed a real heightened pressure from opposition in that area of our game. So that will receive a lot of attention this week, as it did last week.”
Such is the price of being champions. The Stormers came seeking vengeance for last May’s final defeat on their home turf and Munster will be meeting with a similar vibe when they go back to the Aviva for the first time since Jack Crowley’s drop goal knocked Leinster out in the previous week’s semi-final.
“What can we do? Keep getting better,” Rowntree added. “I’ve pushed us on this summer, because we can’t stand still. I’ve just got to keep pushing us on, getting better, train harder, make sure everything we do in training is relevant.
“We spoke about that target on our backs but if we just keep getting better, things will take care of themselves in my mind. Keep bringing people through and getting better.”
S Daly; C Nash, A Frisch, A Nankivell, S McCarthy; J Crowley, C Casey (C Murray, 60); J Loughman (J Wycherley, 47), S Buckley, J Ryan (S Archer, 47); E Edogbo (T Ahern, 53), T Beirne; P O’Mahony – captain (J O’Donoghue, h-t), J Hodnett (A Kendellen, 68), G Coombes.
C Moore, R Scannell
W Gelant; B Loader (C Blommetjies, 68), R Nel, S Feinberg-Mngomezulu, L Zas; J-L du Plessis (A Davids, 65), P de Wet (H Jantjies, 59); S Sithole (A Vermaak, 59), J Dweba (A-H Venter, 53), N Fouche – captain (B Harris, 60); R van Heerden, G Porter (A Smith, 6); W Engelbrecht (B Harris, 42-48 – YC sub; K Morabe, 53), B-J Dixon, E Roos.
N Fouche 38-48
Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
