Butler urges Munster to match Croke Park standards as Stormers visit Thomond Park
Tony Butler in training for Munster. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho
Munster return to Thomond Park on Saturday night knowing they need to improve their home performances if they are to continue their winning start to the season against the URC table-topping Stormers.
For all the momentum generated by five straight league wins, and a victory over an Argentina XV last time out on November 1, only the URC round 4 bonus-point victory over defending champions Leinster came with a performance that ticked most of the boxes for fly-half Tony Butler.
Significantly, that 31-14 win on October 18 came in Dublin, at Croke Park, while the opening-round trip to Scarlets, a 34-21 success in Clayton McMillan’s first match as head coach, was the other fixture which brought a smile to everyone’s faces inside the Munster camp.
Back on home turf, real or otherwise, has seen McMillan’s men scrape past Cardiff and Connacht in Limerick either side of a lucky escape against Edinburgh on the 4G at Cork’s Virgin Media Park, with a combined winning margin of six points across three home outings.
As far as Butler is concerned, it is time for Munster to start turning it on in front of their own supporters.
“It's much easier coming in on Monday morning when you're winning than losing,” he said. “Even though we've been pretty harsh on ourselves when reviewing because we know we haven't yet had a performance where we're fully pleased. So even though we're winning we're still not happy with different aspects of the game. Nothing really too consistently, but there's always something you can get better at.”
Acknowledging that the Croke Park performance was the high point of the opening block of games, Butler added: “Definitely that Monday morning was good. More so the Connacht game, the games we've had at home. That's kind of what we're targeting this week, putting in that performance we had in Dublin this Saturday because we were close that Saturday to a top performance.
“It is just trying to get that now at home because we haven't had it in Cork or Thomond Park yet.”
The 23-year-old Ennis RFC product has earned a place on the bench as back up to the returning Jack Crowley for Saturday evening’s clash with the only other unbeaten side in the league off the back of an impressive start against the Pumas’ A team.
Two well-taken tries and three conversions in a 31-28 victory over the tourists was a memorable contribution in a seventh start in 25 senior appearances, though the Clare man has quickly turned the page in search of his next opportunity to shine.
“Yeah, moved on from that now, it's nearly three weeks ago, isn't it?,” Butler said. “We've moved on.
“We had two weeks off, so grand to get a bit of a break, kind of mid-season, lads get to refresh the minds and the body or whatever so it's good.
“Few lads obviously got a run, younger lads who were looking for opportunities in previous games that didn't get them. So the lads got them and some lads took them.”
Butler definitely took his chance against the Argentines but he craves more gametime, especially with the number 10 on his back.
“I feel like I'm going good. Obviously would like a few more minutes here and there, maybe another start, but parts of my game I feel I definitely came on the back end of last season, playing a few big games and then over the summer and into the start of the season in terms of game management and whatnot, but yeah I definitely feel like I'm growing there, just trying to get those extra few minutes wherever I can.
“I feel like I'm every time I'm getting minutes I'm learning and every minute is valuable.”
Butler’s hunger is obvious and he revealed it has been that way since his Munster debut, replacing Joey Carbery in the covid-era Champions Cup pool victory at Wasps in 2021, when the bulk of the squad was in lockdown, stranded in South Africa and he was one of 12 debutants.
“We were 18 or whatever, and we ended up playing Champions Cup.
“I remember the following week, a few lads got back from South Africa but I was so pissed off I wasn't involved the following week. I got my first start, but I was raging I wasn't in the following week.”
Four years on, there is comfort he is backing up a player of Crowley’s quality.
“You're competing against the best of the best, like he's Ireland's out-half, or joint out-half. If you're not competing with the best, you're not really kicking on yourself, so having that competition is definitely great and even learning off of him, him coming back from Irish camp picking a few bits off him here and there, it's definitely good you are competing against the best.”
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