Charlie Mulqueen
In normal circumstances, it would be difficult for Leinster to produce another massive performance a week after their exploits at the Millennium Stadium. Indeed, any team would be entitled to feel they had done enough in beating almost every top team at various stages of the Heineken Cup and capped it all with the remarkable triumph in Cardiff.
However, Joe Schmidt and his players could not have asked for a more appetising contest to round the whole thing off — Munster at Thomond Park in the final of the Magners League.
They were fully entitled to celebrate over the last couple of days but the festivities are on hold as they set about completing a famous double. And, of course, there’s no better place to do that than the backyard of their fiercest rivals.
They travel to Limerick having produced one of the finest ever second-half displays by any Irish rugby team. Nobody would have given them a chance at the interval in Cardiff. A stirring address by Jonathan Sexton combined with a quick but highly-successful session between scrummaging coach Greg Feek and his prop forwards helped to totally transform the game.
In subsequent interviews, Brian O’Driscoll lavished praise on Sexton while Joe Schmidt was equally effusive in lauding Feek’s contribution. Both men were on the money. Sexton has clearly emerged now as a major force at the highest levels of the game, his confidence visibly growing with each big game. The contribution of 28 points in a Heineken Cup final highlighted by two brilliantly and courageously taken tries has already become part of Irish rugby folklore.
Only those who have practiced the dark art of front-row forward play will understand just how Feek was able to explain to Mike Ross and Cian Healy what they needed to do. It seemed impossible given that they had been pushed all over the place even when Northampton were down to seven forwards but it was entirely the other way around on the turnover.
Credit must go to Feek but it also speaks volumes for the capacity of Ross and Healy to adapt. If they hadn’t managed to do so on Saturday, that amazing rally would not have been possible.
Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder and sections of the British media have tried to explain the second-half meltdown by claiming exhaustion at the end of a long season. Quite simply, that’s no more than an excuse but even if it contained even a grain of truth, that’s their problem while speaking volumes for the way our players are looked after by the IRFU.
Leinster’s magnificent achievement leaves Munster with a massive job on their hands come Saturday. They won’t lack the kind of self belief that stood to Leo Cullen’s side in Cardiff and the Red Army, dreading the prospect of seeing the boys in blue parading around Thomond Park with both the Heineken and Magners trophies on Saturday evening, will give them unstinting support.
Tellingly, everyone of the 26,500 tickets were snapped more than eight days ahead of the game. Munster will also derive confidence from having beaten Leinster in their most recent clash at the venue, even if for the seventh successive game between the sides, they failed to score a try. They will have noted how Northampton helped themselves to three before half time on Saturday and perhaps that has helped them to see ways of breaching the powerful Leinster defence.
And that brings us back once again to the scrum. The Saints got their tries thanks to the early supremacy of their set piece and the powerful running and support play of the back-row. Is it imaginable that a Munster unit that has creaked all year long will now suddenly find a way to put one over on Ross, Healy, Van Der Merwe and Wright?
Time was when Marcus Horan carried ball with the best of them and John Hayes held up his end in the tight, just as Healy and Ross have been doing all year. But time has moved on and you suspect Munster would gladly settle for parity in that area while hoping to edge things in the line-out and rely on the boot of Ronan O’Gara to provide the scoring power.
It worked in the most recent clash of the sides when O’Gara relentlessly found the target. Paul O’Connell is back in the second-row and fully fit and that, too, will be to Munster’s benefit.
Yes, there are positives for Munster but you suspect that everything will have to click into place for the full 80 minutes if they are to deprive Leinster of a historic double.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/fkKCnH-kXIg/post.aspx
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