Munster will take their Champions Cup roadshow further down the French Atlantic coast to Bordeaux Bègles after the latter’s entertaining 43-31 Round of 16 win over a doggedly defiant Ulster set up a quarter-final between the two in the Stade Chaban-Delmas next Saturday (kick-off 4pm local time/3pm Irish time).
Following on from their titanic 25-24 Round of 16 win over Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle on Saturday evening amid a loud and vibrant mix of yellow and red, Munster will renew acquaintances with another former outhalf in Joey Carbery, who piloted UBB to their win over Ulster.
Meanwhile, Leinster will host Glasgow next Friday night in the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 8pm), when the prize for Leo Cullen’s team will be a home semi-final against the winners of the Northampton v Castres tie, which will be played next Saturday evening (kick-off 5.30pm).
How did Munster stun O’Gara’s La Rochelle?
In the other half of the draw, the winners of the Bordeaux Bègles v Munster tie will face either Toulon or Toulouse, whose all-French meeting will conclude the quarter-finals when they meet next Sunday.
Connacht’s 35-20 win over Cardiff last Saturday night has set up a home Challenge Cup quarter-final against three-time Champions Cup finalists Racing 92.
Bordeaux Bègles will be favourites next Saturday, but Ulster exposed enough chinks in their armour to make Munster travel in hope. The Ulster coach Richie Murphy, who must have feared the worst when the home side ran up 21 points in the first 21 minutes in energy-sapping conditions, expressed himself “extremely proud of the lads, the way they stuck at it and stayed in the fight.
“We played some really good rugby at times, the transitionary moments which we knew were going to come really cost us in that first half. A couple of loose kicks and they punish you really badly. Fair play to Bordeaux, and we wish them all the best going forward. Our focus turns to the URC.”
Asked if he gave Munster a chance in the same stadium next Saturday, Murphy said: “You’ve always got a chance. It’s a very difficult place to come. The atmosphere will be incredible like it was yesterday. We wish them all the best.”
O’Gara was more optimistic about his former province’s chances.
“They’ve momentum now and that’s the most important thing. You look at it and think Bordeaux are a seriously impressive side, but they don’t have momentum because they got rattled by Toulouse’s so-called second team and they made them worry a lot and then they lost to Racing last week.
“They’re on fire from September to March but there’s definitely been a slowing down, or a belt to the juggernaut that was Bordeaux. Munster love coming to France and they’ve been doing it for 25 years.”
The pity is that as a consequence of the Anglo-French cartel in the EPRC restricting the Champions Cup to eight weekends, the quarter-finals are shoehorned into the calendar at barely six days’ notice. The estimated 3,000-strong Red Army which invaded La Rochelle had been planning their trips since January and can thus hardly be expected to travel in the same numbers.
In the aftermath of Munster’s win on Saturday evening and in the event of Bordeaux Bègles beating Ulster on Sunday, it was suggested to the Munster interim head coach Ian Costello that returning to France a week later was a big ask for the province’s supporters.
“You won’t get too many people complaining from what I saw. There’ll be kids’ piggybanks raided. There’ll be people here, that’s the magic of it.
“There’s people that would prefer not to go on summer holidays to get two weekends like this. That’s what’s special about the club.”
In all his time within Munster’s coaching structure, since 2006, Costello said he had had never experienced such a “special” occasion.
“I went to meet a few friends just to get out of the hotel for an hour and it was shivers down your neck stuff. I think I saw a picture of Gaillimh [Mick Galwey] up on a cherry picker singing Zombie. That’s next level insanity!”
It was true too.
“When we came in [to the ground] somebody sent us a video of the crowd outside and so we knew it was big. Northampton this year I thought was incredible but I hadn’t seen anything like that for a long, long time.
“That set the tone. What it means to our supporters. There was talk of 2,000 here, there were way more than 2,000.
“We got that sense this morning, so it is special, and that’s probably why last week was so important too,” said Costello in reference to the URC win over Connacht. “Because we want to make sure we’ve our bread and butter looked after to be in this competition.
“The reality is now, we want to have three more days like this. You take one game at a time but there’s no point in this being our cup final. It would nearly disrespect what the club have done. We’ve three matches left to have a crack at winning a trophy.”
Jeremy Loughman suffered a hamstring injury in the win over La Rochelle while it seems likely they will be again without Alex Nankivell, who was given a two-week suspension for his red card against Connacht.
“The hearing was only last Wednesday, so a challenging time between the URC hearing and we’d to have that appeal by 12pm on Friday. We’ve a decision to make now as a club, do we appeal that, and we’ll make that decision tomorrow because the appeal will be Monday if it is.”
Champions Cup quarter-finals
Friday, April 11th: Leinster v Glasgow Warriors, Aviva Stadium, 8pm (live on RTÉ 2 and Premier Sports)
Saturday, April 12th: Bordeaux Bègles v Munster, Stade Chaban-Delmas, 4pm local/3pm Irish time (live on Premier Sports); Northampton Saints v Castres, Franklin’s Gardens, 5.30.
Sunday, April 13th: Toulon v Toulouse, Stade Félix Mayol, 4pm local time/3pm Irish.
