It may be stretching things to say that Munster saved the Champions Cup with their compelling victory in La Rochelle last Saturday but they sure as hell saved the round of 16 weekend and, in the process, they and their supporters yet again made you wonder what on earth this competition would have done without them.
True, any competition that can boast a quintet of full houses amounting to 108,000-plus spectators at a quintet of different French venues (even in Castres for heaven’s sake) must have something going for it. There was also a capacity crowd in Glasgow, 13,000-plus attendance in Northampton and, of course, a remarkable 55,000-plus at Croke Park.
Leinster certainly have some marketing department and, maybe, the best team too, but they’re damned if they win well and damned if they don’t, and then damned if they don’t win the final. It’s unfair, really.
How did Munster stun O’Gara’s La Rochelle?
Yet, of course, that was after a near three-month build-up since the completion of the pool stages. Now, due to the appalling way in which the quarter-finals are shoehorned into the schedule at a week’s notice, the four home clubs do not have sufficient time to maximise the potential attendance for what used to be one of the standout weekends of the season.
One would wonder too how much damage will be done in the short and longer term by some of the limp-away performances and lopsided round of 16 ties over the weekend. Outside Munster’s 25-24 win in La Rochelle, the other seven ties went the way of the home teams by an average of 25 points, although honourable exception should be made to Benetton, who came within one play of beating Castres, meaning the other six home sides won by an average margin of 29. Over the course of the weekend’s eight ties, the home sides scored 56 tries to 27 by the away teams.
Munster conceded three tries and missed 26 tackles but while it might seem strange that Tadhg Beirne cited Munster’s defence as the main reason for their win, these statistics are relative. For starters, the three tries Munster conceded were at least three fewer than any other team and their scrambling was sensational. Ditto their ability to stay in the fight − witness the 15 turnovers they won (as against four by La Rochelle), with Beirne and Calvin Nash leading the way with four apiece, followed by John Hodnett on two.
To put Munster’s performance further into perspective, in the three years of straight knock-out round of 16 ties, the home team has progressed 22 times out of 24 ties. The two exceptions have been La Rochelle away to the Stormers last season and Munster on Saturday.
Furthermore, in the 38 knock-out ties so far over the last three seasons, only three times have away sides advanced, with Harlequins being the other team to do so in last season’s quarter-final. The three away winners in those 38 ties had one thing in common − they all won by a solitary point.
As a consequence, for the first time in three seasons, the Champions Cup has two Irish teams in contention on quarter-final weekend, while Connacht have earned a glamorous Challenge Cup quarter-final against Racing 92. This is, of course, primarily due to Munster avoiding a third round of 16 exit in succession.
[ Connacht set up Racing 92 clash after hard-earned victory over CardiffOpens in new window ]
Time was when Munster reaching the quarter-finals was an annual achievement, and from 1998-99 until 2013-14 they did so for 16 seasons in a row. Then, after two pool exits, Munster reached three semi-finals in a row, but next Saturday’s game away to Union Bordeaux Bègles will only be their second quarter-final in the last six seasons.
There’s a certain symmetry in Munster encountering another French team for the first time ever as well as one featuring a former Munster outhalf, of more recent vintage admittedly, in Joey Carbery.
Nor have they ever earned themselves a more challenging, all-French knock-out route to the final, with the winners of next Saturday’s quarter-final then facing either the three-time champions Toulon or the six-time champions Toulouse, and for Munster that would be an away tie again.
[ Joey Carbery enjoying the good life in France both on and off the pitchOpens in new window ]
Last Saturday’s epic in a throbbing Stade Marcel Deflandre had more than a few echoes of the semi-final win over Toulouse in Bordeaux in May 2000, when Ronan O’Gara finished a memorable pitch-length try in his 21-point haul.
That was also the day that spawned the Red Army, and they turned up in droves in what is now called Stade Chaban-Delmas, and appears hardly to have changed at all. That said, the last time Munster were there, they were beaten by Racing in the semi-finals six seasons ago when, for reasons best known to himself, Johann van Graan left Simon Zebo out of his starting XV.
Thaakir Abrahams was signed ostensibly to provide some of the X-factor which Zebo took into retirement and punditry. Injuries have restricted him to just six games for Munster and Saturday was his first outing since the pool defeat in Castres last December and his first at full-back, yet the gamble by the Munster brains trust was entirely vindicated by his fleet-footed counter-attack for Craig Casey’s try, which was the first of several momentum shifts in the game.
It’s good to have Munster and their Red Army back in the last eight and with some of their old self-belief, and especially in France. Attending last Saturday’s match in La Rochelle and UBB’s 43-31 win over a defiant Ulster the following day under clear blue skies was a thrill. Experiencing those games, and mindful of those five full houses at round of 16 ties in France, the thought occurred that while France may never have won the World Cup, it is the best rugby country in the world, with proper fan support and the top league in the global game too.
[ Bordeaux Bègles set up Munster quarter-final after comfortable win over UlsterOpens in new window ]
Munster bring plenty of colour as well as variety, and even a little madness, as evidenced by the sight of Mick Galwey and two others atop a cherry picker (red, of course) leading a rendition of Zombie to several hundred Muster supporters outside the Stade Deflandre about an hour before kick-off.
Suffice to say, not many former captains of their provinces would do that. Last weekend would have been altogether duller without them, and the same will no doubt be true next weekend.
gerry.thornley@irishtimes.com
