Munster coaching ticket 'pre-morteming' in preparation for Stormers' Thomond visit
Munster's Craig Casey. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho
A week on from Ireland’s humbling at the hands of the Springboks, Munster welcome the URC-leading Stormers to Thomond Park eager to avoid similar pitfalls and having done all they can to mitigate against whatever the South Africans might throw at them.
Munster forwards coach Alex Codling earlier this week outlined the threats posed by the only other than his own not to have lost after five rounds of league competition this season, and why the Capetonians have a far superior points difference separating them at the top from the second-placed Reds.
In case you missed it, Codling pointed to, amongst a variety of other things, their averaging 31 points a game and conceding just six in their dispatching of Leinster, Ospreys, Scarlets, Zebre and Benetton. And he also highlighted the prospect of coming up against the best scrum in the URC, which, for anyone who witnessed the demolition of the Irish pack at the Aviva seven days ago, should give plenty of pause for thought.
Will there be comfort that the Stormers do not have a trio of props including Frans Malherbe in Limerick this evening, or that try-scoring backs Damian Willemse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Cobus Reinach are also unavailable?
Munster will take nothing for granted from the team John Dobson will send out at Thomond Park this evening, with Codling introducing a new phrase, to these ears at least, to describe the home side’s approach to prepare for any eventuality.
“We call it pre-morteming,” the Munster assistant and self-confessed lineout junkie said when explaining the set-piece preparations.
"So putting stuff in that might happen, so obviously yellow cards, red cards, we're a point up at the minute to go, what are we doing, we need to score a try, we are a point down all these different things.”
This week’s pre-morteming, as opposed to a post-mortem – examining a body after death – included the possibility that the Stormers could be emboldened by their national team’s destruction of Ireland’s scrum to try and inflict something similar on their nearest URC rivals.
“I think it's really important,” Codling said. "And I think that's the value for us in terms of as a coaching group. We spoke about this (Monday) morning, in terms of that pre-morteming, so what would we do? Because I think when you're watching on the television, it's easy.
"You're not in the pressure bowl, but actually, what happens if X takes place? What would we do differently? Or why? Because ultimately, you try and get to a point, it's not always possible, but things can change on the pitch and it'll get to the Monday and the result's already taken care of itself.
"So we're constantly looking at things that are happening in the game itself, both as individual coaches in our particular areas, but also as a game itself. Because it is hard.
"When you're in the heat at the moment and things are happening, how you come together as a coaching group is really important. It's an amazing place to be, but it can also be incredibly stressful because things are happening that you haven't anticipated.
"Being a head coach, which I have been (at Newcastle), and that was stressful, how you see things and what your lieutenants around you can give you information in how you see it, working as a team in that moment.
"So you're not getting to Monday and then look at things and, why did we do this? And there's not always the right answers, but I think as a coaching group, we're always meeting and having a look at things.
" I think whenever a team sees something where they can go after it, you would expect in a collision sport like rugby... You look at the Stormers this week, they're an embryo of the South African team.
"They go after pressure points. They've had 34 turnovers in five games on the ground. They're kicking game is strong. They've had, on average, 12 entries a game, scored four tries. They've got 95 per cent ball winning. They've got the number one scrum.
"They've averaged 31 points for, six points against. So these are all microcosms of the South African team. So for us, in a sense, how we prepare the boys is really important that they know what's coming, but let's treat this as a massive opportunity and challenge for us, because ultimately that's why you play."
Forewarned is forearmed and Munster’s ability to recall their five Ireland internationals led by captain and World Rugby men’s dream team member Tadhg Beirne is a huge boost to the collective rugby intelligence with their team. It may be just enough to extend that winning run to six from six.
S Daly; D Kilgallen, T Farrell, A Nankivell, T Abrahams; J Crowley, C Casey; J Loughman, D Barron, J Ryan; T Ahern, F Wycherley; T Beirne - captain, J O’Donoghue, G Coombes.
N Scannell, M Milne, R Foxe, E Edogbo, J Hodnett, E Coughlan, T Butler, D Kelly.
W Gelant; D Maart, W Simelane, R Nel, L Zas; J Matthee, S Ungerer; V Matongo, A-H Venter, N Fouché; S Moerat - captain, C Evans; P de Villiers, M Theunissen, E Roos.
JJ Kotzé, O Kebble, S Sandi, A Smith, JD Schickerling, R Ackermann, D Duvenage, C Swart.
Andrea Piardi (Italy).
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