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'We hated ye': Simon Zebo lifts the lid on spicy Munster rivalry with Ryan Wilson's Glasgow

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Simon Zebo has lifted the lid on the tense rivalry that brewed up some years ago between Munster and Glasgow, explaining why Warriors back row Ryan Wilson became so disliked in the Irish team’s dressing room.

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The rivalry initially sprung from heated PRO12 meetings, Glasgow winning semi-final and final matches in 2014 and 2015 respectively. This tension carried on and eventually carried over into feisty pool stage collisions in the 2016/17 Champions Cup, matches that were won by Munster.

Keith Earls was sent off when the teams met in Limerick in October 2016, the week after Anthony Foley had tragically passed away.

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Ryan Wilson reveals all about his 2018 Calcutta Cup fight with England’s Owen Farrell

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Ryan Wilson reveals all about his 2018 Calcutta Cup fight with England’s Owen Farrell

Tempers then reached a boiling point in the January 2017 return match at Scotstoun when Glasgow players – including Wilson – were accused of targeting the exposed standing leg of Conor Murray when the scrum-half box kicked from the back of the ruck.

With both Zebo and Wilson now appearing as co-hosts on the RugbyPass Offload show, the Celtic rivalry was revisited with special emphasis on how Zebo received massive Munster dressing room stick after he pressed the follow button on the Glasgow back row’s Instagram page.   

“I just want to get this off my chest,” said Zebo with a smile. “A couple of years back we used to have a lot of games against Glasgow, whether it was Champions Cup or playing each other in the league, and all the games were quite spicy. 

“There was always a bit of argy-bargy, and you [Wilson] would be leading that for a lot of the Glasgow boys. There were a few players on the Munster team who wouldn’t have been fans of you. 

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“It was just a bit of craic. They weren’t too serious I don’t think. But there was one day you followed me on Instagram and I clicked the follow button back because we had played against each other so much. 

“I had a screenshot sent into a WhatsApp group of a few players that I can’t name. Three or four of them were like literally, ‘What the f*** is this? You’re following this clown’. I got a bit of heat for that and I had to immediately unfollow you, but I followed you again recently. 

“I got so much heat for that. It was a bit of craic. I won’t name the players but it was in the middle of all the games we were playing against each other. There was a bit of angst.”

With Wilson warming to the topic of how he was disliked in the Munster dressing room, a revealing Q&A followed between the Scot and Zebo which identified the Irish players who were most wound up by the rivalry. Here’s how it unfolded:

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RW: Was there a gentleman called Peter (O’Mahony) involved in that? 

SZ: Potentially. And there was a few others who I won’t mention.

RW: That cements it, that means I have done my job. I know have done my job when that sort of stuff comes back… I’m sure there’s another one, (Andrew) Conway maybe?

SZ: Yeah, Conway was in there. You know it, the fellas you were stirring up you know too well. 

RW: It was Peter O’Mahony and definitely Conway. That was the two definites, and I’m guessing Conor Murray is in there as well?

SZ: Yeah. Yeah. 

RW: There was that whole thing about us targeting Conor Murray when he was kicking the ball from the base of rucks, which we were. 

SZ: Yeah, going after his standing leg, ye dirty shower. Ye know all about it. Ah, we hated ye. There was real rivalry there for a few years. 

RW: I love it, I absolutely love it, and we have got a game against Munster in two weeks, that’s our next game now. With this young squad, I’m going to have to get them up to speed on what it means.

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Jon 8 hours ago
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This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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