The novelty of Croke Park playing host to big rugby games has moved on to the point where there is now something of a tradition about the Leinster-Munster match in the United Rugby Championship being played at Jones’s Road where, as shown by the television cameras in the tunnel as the players exited, the rather appropriate signage read: “GAA – Where We All Belong”.
There was also a Mind Your Head sign which, you’d think, had more relevance for those clad in blue and red on this occasion than for the regular hurling and Gaelic football players making their way on to the hallowed turf.
For the Premier Sports team who’d previewed the match from pitchside, much of the advance punditry centred on the two outhalves, with Bernard Jackman even venturing to compare the potential new rivalry of Leinster’s Sam Prendergast and Munster’s Jack Crowley to the one back in the day between Ollie Campbell and Tony Ward.
Not that Simon Zebo – who is not shy about coming forward – had any doubts in his mind as to who had the edge in this newest battle to be Ireland’s number one number 10. “Jack Crowley,” responded Zebo when the question was put to him by Ross Harries, with Zebo joking he expected some correspondence from “Leinster crybabies in my in-box” for his adamant preference for Crowley.
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As Zebo added, “Jack needs to be given the keys to the car”, those words directed not so much at the Leinster crybabies rather than at Ireland coach Andy Farrell.
Anyway, this URC match gave Sam and Jack the perfect opportunity to make their respective cases to Farrell, on what match commentator Ryle Nugent informed those of us sitting comfortably on our couches was a “windy, dirty, dank, old evening in Dublin town”.
And co-commentator Ian Madigan – who’d also been part of the prematch musings before making his way up to the booth – gave us a hint of what was to come when informing Nugent, when down pitchside, that “you could hear the air coming out of the tackle bags” such was the intensity of the teams’ preparations.
What you get with the Premier Sports commentary is a bit different from the norm. Nugent, ever the professional in focusing and commentating on what is being played in front of him, at this stage knows what is coming from his co-commentators Zebo, especially, and Madigan, who have this sort of bromance routine going on.
With Munster playing like the Munster of old and getting the better of their old rivals, Zebo’s persistent interjections of oohs and aahs and downright chortling in the background was distracting for the viewers, never mind for the man tasked with the primary duty of commentating.
When half-time came with Munster the dominant force, Zebo calmed down slightly to observe: “Munster will be delighted with the opening 40 minutes,” to which Nugent could only respond: “[A] compelling if not perfect [first-half].”
Back down pitchside, Jackman feared the worst for the men in blue. “Leinster’s body language wasn’t good, [they were] at sixes and sevens. Have they got the mentality to go and do it? I have my doubts,” he told Harries.
Part of the prematch talk had ventured into the area of the discrepancy between how many Leinster players – 21 – and how few Munster players – four – had been named in the Irish squad for the upcoming Autumn Internationals. And, before the second half, Madigan made a pertinent observation - “We’re all human beings, we all like to prove people wrong” - regarding how that perceived slight had been used by Munster.
Anyway, Jackman’s foreboding about Leinster’s ability to mount a comeback in the second-half proved correct and Zebo’s chortling became a constant in the background until finally he was unleashed from the commentary booth before the final whistle so that he could conduct on-pitch postgame interviews with a number of Munster players.
Those interviews, to use the term loosely, were more like a fan-zone experience, with Zebo barely able to contain himself as he sought out the men in red with his microphone in hand. “Class, bro!”, “Unbelievable, my man!”
In the circumstances, you couldn’t but feel his joy.
