Munster's dire start to season a warning for the Bulls?
For long-time supporters of top Irish provincial team Munster, a glance at the current Vodacom United Rugby Championship log must be both an unusual and depressing experience.
A bit like Liverpool have in a different sport, Munster haven’t got off to their usual strong start in the competition, and after four games they are a long way from the top four position they usually occupy. Following a change of coach, with Graham Rowntree coming in for Johan van Graan, the former Springbok assistant who is now coaching Bath, talk of a bright new beginning for the team from Limerick has proved anything but.
After three defeats in four games, two of those losses coming at the hands of Welsh clubs, Munster are listing at 12th on the overall log standings, four places below play-off qualification. They thought they were righting the ship when they beat Zebre 10 days ago, but were back in the mire this past weekend when they lost to Connacht in the Irish derby in Galway.
It is a desperate situation made perhaps more desperate by what comes next – a visit to Thomond Park by the Vodacom Bulls, who last year made it all the way to the URC final. The Bulls were poor in their surprisingly one-sided defeat to Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun in the fourth round, and will come to Munster in a determined mood.
There again, Munster will be even more desperate, and they do have the advantage of playing at a home venue that doesn’t tend to be kind to visiting teams.
“We are spoiled as players and coaches to have such great support as we do with the Munster fans. I’m sure they’ll be right behind us at Thomond which is now a huge game,” said Rowntree after his team’s 20-11 defeat at the hands of Connacht.
“It’s always going to be a huge game, particularly against the Bulls. We know what’s coming from the Bulls so we drive on. We’ll look at this game Monday, fix things, drive training, see what selection brings. We’ve got some guys coming back from South Africa and we’ll look forward to the next game after Monday.”
The former England prop has a lot of expectation around him as he starts out in his new role as head coach, but says the intense pressure on him is no worse than he anticipated.
“No, it’s tough. That’s coaching. It’s fixing things, finding solutions, moving forward; fixing them, working to the next game,” said Rowntree. “I’ve been around long enough. Obviously it’s a different context being the head coach but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Munster’s problems so far this season have been manifold, but primarily there has been a lack of penetration on attack, there have been way too many handling errors and they have a poor record with their discipline, having scored 52 penalties, an average of 13 per match, over their four games. Rowntree says much of that comes down to just trying new things.
“We’ve changed how we’re doing things. We’ve not reinvented the wheel but we’ve changed things and I can see the changes, the improvements coming through. But we just have to eradicate errors, eradicate penalties, improve our discipline. It’s my job to do that, and the coaches, and to manage those young coaches, it’s my job. We’ll keep doing that, that’s all we can physically do, day in, day out.”
In contrast to Munster, the other members of the so-called Irish big three, Leinster and Ulster, are flying at present, with Leinster at the top of the log and Ulster having regained winning momentum ahead of their trip to South Africa, where they face the Emirates Lions and Cell C Sharks, with a comprehensive win over the Ospreys.
Ulster ran in seven tries against the Welsh club and were never threatened as they built up a solid 28-10 lead at the break before pressing on to the victory in the second half. Having fallen to Leinster last week, it was exactly the response Ulster wanted before they welcome back their Emerging Ireland contingent and integrate Rory Sutherland into the squad having announced the Scotland and British and Irish Lions prop’s arrival on a short-term deal earlier on Saturday.
Meanwhile Italian rugby is looking increasingly more healthy. The Zebre team that lost to the DHL Stormers in Parma at the weekend was understrength due to injury, but the other Italian team, Benetton, properly flexed muscles with their comprehensive win over what was hitherto considered a rejuvenated Dragons team following their win over Munster and narrow loss to the Sharks.
Credit: URCSA
Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments