Munster need the last laugh Friday... their sad record at Leinster has gone beyond a joke
What is rare is always wonderful. Look at the joy that surrounded Glasgow and Scarlets respectively winning the 2015 and 2017 PRO12 titles, uprisings that gave Scotland and Wales their next Test team head coaches and reminded everyone that the currently titled PRO14 isn’t just about the four Irish provinces.
The Irish have consistently monstered this tournament despite the tendency for Ireland Test level players to not feature very much in it due to central contracting. Look at Johnny Sexton – this Friday night, if the stats on his Leinster website profile are on point, will finally bring up his 100th PRO14 appearance nearly 15 years after his January 2006 league debut at Borders.
That’s an enormous length of time but the thing with Sexton, along with so many of his Test colleagues, is that he is rarely missed at PRO14 level, such is the richness of the resources coursing through the Irish development system which ensures it maintains its general dominance over the Scots, the Welsh and the others who make up the numbers in this 19-season-old tournament.
It has nearly been ever thus: 13 of the league’s 19 editions have been played with knockout stage finales and this weekend’s latest last-four line-up is the sixth occasion – the fourth in the past seven campaigns – in which Ireland’s teams have taken three of the four semi-final spots.
That’s rather greedy, and yet this dominance isn’t without its idiosyncrasies. Take this Friday’s scheduling. A five-day turnaround is usually frowned upon in Irish circles where player welfare is at the top of the central contracting agenda.
XVs are in for Friday night lights at the Aviva https://t.co/mgez1iQ6ST
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 3, 2020
Just remember how Leinster accused European officials of taking the pee some years ago when they had to follow an away pool assignment in France on a Sunday by backing up that effort in Dublin the following Friday. Munster’s travelling this week won’t be as excessive – just two round trips on the M7 from Limerick – but the fact they have to go all-out with a dozen of the same starting team that ran out versus Connacht last Sunday goes against the grain of the Irish ‘we look after our players so very well’ mantra.
What gives? With the Republic of Ireland soccer team booked in to play at the Aviva on Sunday, a Friday night slot was given to Leinster-Munster, an insult to Munster given the short turnaround it forced on them.
Add in how they seldom if ever win in Dublin these days – one win in 15 away to Leinster since ‘nilling’ them in September 2008 – and it’s safe to suggest the challenge confronting them is Everest-like for a club trying so very hard to replicate magical past glories.
Getting over the big-stage hump has long become an issue in a dreadful derby sequence that started with that seminal Heineken Cup semi-final loss at Croke Park in 2009 and in recent years has featured successive PRO14 semi-final defeats at the RDS.
What has continuously done for Munster is the near set-in-stone pattern whereby Leinster usually dictate early on the scoreboard, leaving the visitors to play catch-up. This was yet again the case last Saturday week when the hosts leapt 24-13 clear before the late drama that was JJ Hanrahan missing a conversion to tie the game at 27-all.
If there is a blueprint for getting the job done, it’s the 2014 Aviva plan that had the fingerprints of the late Anthony Foley all over it. Munster savaged Leinster in the opening half that day, leading 28-9 at the break before closing out a deserved 34-23 win.
Their pack was ravenous on that occasion and essentially the moral is that Munster must lead from the front on Friday night, be the aggressor and force Leinster from their comfort zone rather than having to fashion a futile late comeback after their initial strategy fails to work.
There is something to enthuse in the sense that wingers Andrew Conway and Keith Earls retain the potency to deliver tries, an ability to go wide that reflects positively on the first-term manipulations of assistant coach Stephen Larkham, an armoury now added to by the confrontational attributes of new midfield signing Damian de Allende.
But Munster badly need a victory to endorse the curious Johann van Graan reign. Onboard since November 2017 when Rassie Erasmus hurried back to South Africa to fashion their World Cup triumph, doubts exist that van Graan genuinely has the capabilities to end a trophy drought that stretches back to Munster’s 2011 Thomond Park league final win over Leinster, the foe who have since lifted seven trophies while Munster have been potless.
It was a fortunate European quarter-final win over Edinburgh in April 2019 that earned the South African his contract extension rather than the club waiting and factoring semi-finals losses to Saracens and Leinster into their thinking, and he has similarly been fortunate since then in that this year’s Covid stoppage helped people forget his team exited Europe at the pool stage last January – a rare occurrence for a club whose annual minimum is reaching the last-eight shake-up.
It’s why this latest PRO14 showdown with Leinster has the feel of something of a crossroads. Can van Grann finally deliver and allow Munster regain some high ground, or will they continue to remain eclipsed by the long shadow cast by the stronger Leinster squad that keeps pushing back the boundaries, their latest trick being the engineering of a record 21-game league and cup winning streak in 2019/20? We’ll know the answer about this fork in the road soon enough.
Quite a claim by the World Cup winner just 2️⃣ games into his career in Irelandhttps://t.co/MwQ814HKYw
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 3, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Except for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
33 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
33 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
33 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
33 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
33 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
33 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
33 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to comments