JJ Hanrahan insists Munster must learn to get on with 'lottery' of aerial battle

Munster fly-half JJ Hanrahan. Pic: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

JJ Hanrahan may not like the way rugby is being played right now but the Munster fly-half recognises he and his team have to learn to get on with it in order to come out on the right side of what he describes as “an absolute lottery in the air”.

Munster break new ground this Saturday with a first competitive visit to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for a Champions Cup pool clash with old foes Gloucester and for Kerry native Hanrahan it will be a first sporting visit to the stadium at which an Ed Sheeran concert has been his only experience.

Yet for all the novelty, some things are more predictable and the aerial battle Gloucester are sure to wage through their quality half-backs in Tomos Williams and Ross Byrne will come as no surprise to Munster following a less than stellar outing under the high ball at Bath last Saturday.

The 40-14 defeat to Johann van Graan’s English champions was built via the platform of an aerial bombardment in the midst of a west country downpour that reaped four tries and a 28-0 lead inside 19 minutes at The Rec. 

The only time Munster’s out-half touched the ball in that period as he remembers it was for restarts, save a single chip kick over the Bath defensive line in the first quarter but he knows his side have to do better on home soil in Cork.

“It's never one thing,” Hanrahan said. “There's multiple parts of our game and so much of the game is connected and comes in cycles.

“It starts off with a high ball, for example, winning the scraps on the ground with the way the rules are now. It's absolutely crazy. It's an absolute lottery in the air, so win that part of the game first, then how good can we to be to attack the game and get set to play and attack them?

“That kind of stuff, then what's our discipline going to be like, not let them get into the game. So many facets to the game, so we’ve got to be all over it.” 

The “lottery in the air” comment required further explanation and like senior coach Mike Prendergast, speaking later on Monday after training at the High Performance Centre in Limerick, Hanrahan felt the need to pour forth on the current state of his sport under new World Rugby directives around contestable kicks having outlawed kick escorting by defending teams.

“It’s just very, very different,” the 33-year-old said. “Being honest with you, I think when they thought about the plan, they were like, ‘Oh, to get away from the box-kicking battles with the shielding,’ which meant with the crowd and anyone watching on TV, it's a box kick, you knew the next four seconds was going to be ball up in the air, catch the ball, breakdown, see what happens next.

“Now people are going, ‘Oh, it's going to be a box kick up in the air. It's going to be a bit of razzmatazz for a couple of seconds, if there's not a knock-on’.

“If there's a knock-on, now the game goes slow because it's a scrum. So they didn't really think about that part. Obviously the scrum is a huge part of the game and it's massively important. So the teams who have the most power in that area potentially could dominate. So that's what you see where the contest is going at the moment.

“So it’s different. I've watched a fair bit of Saracens lately and I've seen Owen Farrell just literally not even counter-attack, just look for (his 6ft 4ins wing Noah) Caluori and bang it up in the air for him and use his athletic profile.

“You're seeing athletes on the wing being a massive weapon in games now. I suppose if you're on the wider edges, having a big profile, being big, athletic, getting into the air, that's a huge plus for your team.

“So that's where the game has gone.” 

Yet Hanrahan believes there is still a way to play attractive, expansive running rugby.

“I think there's still a way to get beauty in the game. It's slightly different. It'll probably start from more of a kick mentality, but it's trying to create opportunities within the kick battles for counter-attack or whether you can get a counter-attack or forcing an error and then react on a snap ball and a turnover ball, so it's a bit of a different way.

“I think you might not see that beautiful 15, 16 phases of flowing rugby that maybe Ireland used to do. There'll be phases, there'll be times that'll happen, but there'll be times then, where very much depending on the profile of the team, what way one team brings the game.” 

On a personal level, Hanrahan feels he has finally bedded back in at Munster following his summer move from Connacht for a third spell with his home province.

“I think for me individually, it's been a bit stop-start, being honest with you.

“I felt like I got a really good pre-season under my belt, went away to the Scarlets, we were playing decent, ended up getting a head knock, missed a game, in for a game, out for a game.

“Then we had one or two average enough performances as a team but got over the line and me individually as well. I was proud of my efforts at the weekend against Bath, but even though it's so much familiar here in terms of Munster, it's still a bit of change, still connecting with people, connecting with players, figuring out how they play.

“So, there was still a bit of bedding-in in terms getting to know people and I'm definitely over that phase now. Now it's about just putting our best foot forward and driving on. So the main thing is that we get the job done this weekend, whatever 23 get to take the field, we get the job done this weekend.”