Munster staying focused, says Mark Chisholm

Munster players were ready and willing to travel to Paris for this weekend’s Rugby Champions Cup fixture despite the terrorist attack that shocked the city and the world last Friday, according to the province’s Australian lock Mark Chisholm.

In the event, the decision was made on Tuesday to postpone the game in order to lessen the load on security services that found themselves engaged in further life-threatening operations in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis yesterday where two suspected terrorists were killed.

Stade Jean-Bouin, where Stade Francais and Munster had been scheduled to meet late on Sunday afternoon, lies an hour away by public transport to the south-west, but the province’s players had been approaching the tie as routinely as possible.

“It was all directed on the game,” Chisholm said. “Which is great. It takes your mind off what has happened over there. I’m sure in the back of every player’s mind there was that question, but (more so) to do with how we play on the weekend. It was just always rugby.

“In the back of your mind, what’s happened over there sticks with you but, if anything, the security would have been a lot tighter playing this week than the last few weeks. Reading what’s out on Twitter and that, they don’t want to strain the police and security more than they already have.”

Chisholm is no stranger to the French capital, or indeed Stade Jean Bouin, having spent four years playing and leading Bayonne in the Top 14 so he was particularly saddened and shocked by the events unfolding in France.

“When I heard the news, I called a lot of the blokes I played with over there to see if they and their families were alright,” he said. “You just can’t imagine what it’s like without being in the midst of it. I guess we’re lucky to be here and watching from the outside, but it’s devastating.”

Chisholm and his colleagues actually only got the official word on the postponement yesterday morning and the uncertainty of what happens for the rest of the week probably wasn’t helped by the fact it was a down day for the players. The tone going forward will thus be set today as they regroup for training as Anthony Foley and his staff write a new script and look forward to their next outing: the Guinness PRO12 visit of Connacht to Thomond Park on Saturday week.

It will be the 58-times capped Australian’s second taste of an Irish interprovincial fixture, his first coming in the nine-try thriller in Limerick at the end of October when Munster finished just four points better off than Ulster. Chisholm is no stranger to local rivalries having spent nine seasons with the Brumbies back home, though the quartet of campaigns he experienced in the Basque country threw up one of the most passionate of fixtures in world rugby between Bayonne and Biarritz.

“Yeah, the rivalry goes back a long time,” he said. “When I first came to Bayonne, people were happy to tell me if you only win one game a year, just make sure that it is against Biarritz. The derbies are very special there.”

Life in Ireland may seem less exotic, especially on days like yesterday. Yet Chisholm, who was in Dublin to help launch Life Style Sports’ new international online delivery service, has been unreserved in his praise for the squad and set-up he has joined.

“Fantastic. I am really enjoying it. Coming from the Brumbies in Australia and going to France I sort of lost that, whether it would be professionalism of accountability. Stepping straight into the Munster game or team, it is all about accountability.

“It doesn’t matter who you are or what level you have played: if you are not doing your job you are going to be told about it. To improve your game that is exactly what you need.”