Munster must find discipline and rhythm or it's the last waltz
Jeremy Loughman during Munster Rugby squad training at the University of Limerick in Limerick. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
A familiar dance and a perennial partner, but Munster have work to do to ensure Saturday’s Champions Cup pool finale against old foes Castres does not turn into a last waltz of the campaign.
In its current format, elimination before the knockout stages could be a sign of existential threat to a club, a focus on different priorities, or rank ineptitude. None of those applies to Clayton McMillan’s Munster right now but a failure to collect a bonus-point victory at Thomond Park would increase the likelihood of a Round of 16 exit away to a higher seed come April.
The fact that Castres are travelling to Limerick with an unexpectedly strong team, closer to their best Top 14 line-up than a second string, suggests those five match points may be harder to come by than initially anticipated from this 20th meeting of the clubs.
Munster, on six points from their three matches played in Pool 2, could, should, certainly be in a better position than they find themselves, not least after having to rescue a losing bonus point at Toulon last Sunday. The 27-25 defeat at Stade Felix Mayol was avoidable, with a yellow card just before half-time for captain Tadhg Beirne preceding 14 points for the home side in his absence. That Toulon themselves conceded 14 points with Charles Ollivon in the bin during a game that saw both sides concede a further yellow card apiece, underlines the impact of going down to 14 men. And after giving away 14 penalties in total in France, including the killer blow which Marius Domon dispatched to steal victory five minutes from time, the Munster head coach is understandably keen not to afford similar generosity to Castres this Saturday evening.
“That’s probably the one area that let us down, or inhibited our ability to win that game, our discipline,” McMillan said on Friday.
“There’s a fine edge between being competitive, particularly around the tackle-ball area, the breakdown, and vying to win the ball back mentality, and then getting that slightly wrong.
“I’m sometimes loathe to call it discipline. I think it’s inaccuracies and decision making. So those are the things we try and work on as skills, just like any other part of the game. We didn’t quite get that right on the weekend and in big games, all games really, if you’re operating with less than 15 people on the park it makes life hard on yourself.
“We’re not a good enough team at the moment to be operating with 14 for 20 minutes of the game, so definitely a work on.”Â
The hope, as always, is that Munster will do what they so often do when backs are against the wall, brandish their “Get Out Of Jail Free” card and produce a performance to dispel the worst fears.
“We've talked at length this week around what's at stake; players, the coaching group, everyone in the building has been to this dance before,” McMillan said.
“You know, we put ourselves under some pressure to get a performance, and what excites us, what gives us confidence, is that, you know, there has been a bit of a Munster trait to be able to rise to these occasions and deliver a result.
“We hope that that continues tomorrow, but it won't come easy against the quality Castres side, who have named a strong side. You know, it’s going to be a real battle.”Â
McMillan stretched that analogy further when noting the strength of the Castres team being sent to Thomond Park, predicting a “war”.
“There’s a really healthy rivalry. Again, it’s something we talked about during the week. Out of all of those 20-odd games, there’s never been an easy one. In actual fact both teams have the ability to drag each other into a real war, and that’s exactly what we're expecting tomorrow from them.
“You know, with French teams, they’ve got a powerful set-piece, a lot of flair, and given this is effectively a one-off game to push your way through to the next level of Champions Cup, I imagine they’ll be like us wanting to throw everything at it.”Â
On home soil, with close to their strongest team out themselves and showing just three changes from last weekend’s outing in France, the strength gained from consistent selection in back-to-back games should prove too strong for their old rivals. An improving scrum buoyed by a strong performance in Toulon, the Lazarus-like recovery of scrum-half Craig Casey and a powerful bench should all combine to counter the visitors’ strengths, while the defensive zeal which held on for that bonus point at the Mayol six days earlier can negate the attacking firepower in Castres’ arsenal.
It just needs the choreography to come together, right on cue.
S Daly; T Abrahams, T Farrell, A Nankivell, B O’Connor; J Crowley, C Casey; J Loughman, N Scannell, M Ala’alatoa; J Kleyn, F Wycherley; T Beirne - captain, J O’Donoghue, G Coombes.
L Barron, M Milne, O Jager, E Edogbo, B Gleeson, E Coughlan, JJ Hanrahan, D Kelly.
T Chabouni; C Ambadiang, V Karawalevu, J Goodhue, G Palis; P Popelin, J Fernandez; A Sokobale, L Zarantonello, W Collier; G Maravat, T Staniforth; B Delaporte - captain, B Cope, F Vanverberghe.
T Durand-Pradere, A Tichit, A Azar, L Nakarawa, T Ardron, S Arata, E Herve, A Manu.
Matthew Carley (England)
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