Munster must replicate Sarries tempo to nullify Saints firepower
Munster Rugby Squad Training at UL this week. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie
Northampton Franklin’s Gardens may be set up for a battle royale of running rugby in this decisive Champions Cup Pool 3 encounter on Saturday afternoon as Munster bid to wrest top spot and a home knockout draw from the grip of Northampton Saints.
A week on from their gritty victory in a Thomond Park arm-wrestle with Saracens, Munster's ability to match Saints’ impressive, expansive backline firepower on a chilly dry pitch in the East Midlands will rely on the same sort of physicality and accuracy that saw off more conservative English yeomanry in Limerick seven days earlier.
That was the message from both interim head coach Ian Costello and hooker Niall Scannell this week as Friday’s team announcements confirmed the attacking intentions of both sides and Munster welcomed the return of talismanic flanker Peter O’Mahony from a month-long injury absence.
Saints will offer a very different challenge to their Premiership rivals, particularly backed by a vocal full house at home, but some of the same cornerstones of Munster’s approach will need to be deployed nonetheless.
“You have to fill the pitch; your line speed has to be through the roof. You have to have really good line integrity,” Costello warned. “The speed they play the game at, they have threats everywhere. They are probably the best passing team I have seen. They have five backs named in that England squad. Our forwards are going to play a huge part in terms of dictating the tempo, that will be critical.
“And our backline needs to be physically dominant as well. Northampton are at the other end of the spectrum (to Saracens) in how they play the game. But it’s exciting because it is a different challenge, and it will ask different questions of us. So to keep Saracens tryless was a massive confidence boost but now we have to set up a little differently with a slightly different mindset with the threats this week.”
Scannell, who will start on the Munster bench having been replaced in the starting front-row by Diarmuid Barron, put some meat on the bones of what Costello meant by forwards setting the tempo.
"I do think it's very easy in the narrative to say that Northampton can play loads of rugby but we want to play rugby too.
"That's probably what he means in terms of that comes from the forwards, we have to have the ability to play to get over the gain line, to be energetic, to be able to have our standards around our own attack because we're going to attack them as well.
"Defensively, definitely it means that you can't switch off against these guys. They just have outside backs that are just looking for forwards that are taking a little break and that's what I assume he means, that we've just got to set the tempo and dictate that tempo.
"It is going to be a ball game, really, and the weather looks like it is going to facilitate that as well as opposed to when I sat here before the last Northampton game and said we were going to go over and throw the ball around, and the weather was absolutely horrific and neither team could.
"So I think it's going to be a different version of Northampton than we did two years ago.
That visit in December 2022, when Munster left the Gardens with a 17-6 pool victory has been followed by back-to-back defeats to the Saints, the 26-23 home pool loss in the midst of a deluge resulting in Graham Rowntree’s side having to travel to Northampton for a Round Of 16 knockout tie which saw a travelling squad decimated by a sickness bug outgunned 24-14.
The former Ireland hooker indicated the need for a big shift from the Munster pack if his province is to achieve its objectives and reverse the losing trend.
"You've got to look at the forward pack as well, the platform of ball that those lads are getting, and from looking at it through my own lens that's the first thing that has to be good at our end, that (Saints’ England scrum-half) Alex Mitchell can't play with the ball on a platter all day, we can't give them easy scrum out ball.
"I feel like that's the first step to nullifying them but when you're in open space it's just about being that vigilant defender all the time, seeing threats, seeing their ability to change the picture quickly and then also putting yourself in position to make tackles because they do have that lightning speed.
"So if you haven't worked early enough to put yourself in position, as a forward you're going to struggle against guys like… (Tommy) Freeman and these lads.
"That's what will be going through my head anyway, working early and putting yourself in position and then offensively we've got to give them something to worry about as well.”
J Ramm: T Freeman, F Dingwall - captain, R Hutchinson, T Seabrook; F Smith, A Mitchell; T Haffar, C Langdon, T Davison; A Coles, T Lockett; J Kemeny, T Pearson, J Augustus
H Walker, T West, L Green, C Hunter-Hill, A Scott-Young, H Pollock, T James, T Litchfield
M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell, R Scannell, D Kilgallen; J Crowley, C Murray; D Bleuler, D Barron, O Jager; F Wycherley, T Beirne; P O'Mahony, A Kendellen, G Coombes.
N Scannell, J Ryan, S Archer, T Ahern, J O'Donoghue, P Patterson, T Butler, B Gleeson.
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
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