Advancing to the semi-finals for the last three successive seasons in the Heineken Champions Cup doesn’t look so bad now.
Somehow, the tournament's knock-out stages wouldn't be the same without them, and facing a win-or-bust trek to Racing 92's la Defense Arena on Sunday (kick-off 4.15pm local time/3.15 Irish time) the prospect of no European rugby beyond the third weekend in January certainly doesn't appeal to Munster themselves.
No team has navigated their way through the treacherous pool stages as regularly as the men in red, who’ve done it 18 times, and only thrice in the last 21 years of the competition have they failed to reach the quarter-finals.
Competitive though they’ve been in their three previous pool clashes with Racing and Saracens, who between them have reached six semi-finals in the last three seasons, Munster have been authors of their own predicament through not taking a couple of late three-pointers at home to Racing and away to Saracens.
But for those, they could now be sitting on 14 points rather than 11, sitting two rather than six behind Racing, and four clear of Saracens rather than one.
“In Europe for this year, it’s knockout, it’s massive, it’s huge but that’s European rugby,” said a smiling Johann van Graan after the squad’s training session in the UL yesterday when reflecting on those missed opportunities.
“I believe in this squad, an experienced team. The performances in Europe in my view have been good. So that’s the European challenge for us as a group and that’s the Munster way. We’ve made it difficult for ourselves and now we’ve got to get through this on Sunday if we want to progress in this competition for this year.”
Despite back-to-back defeats by Leinster and Ulster, and doubts about the fitness of JJ Hanrahan, particularly, Andrew Conway and Mike Haley, van Graan said: "There's a feeling of excitement in the camp. We took responsibility as a group on Monday morning after that performance against Ulster. It was uncharacteristic from our side, we got dominated up front and we move on."
“The Leinster game was in the balance until the last minute and then on Friday night we didn’t perform. We don’t need to rebuild our confidence, we’re a confident group, a tight group and we know what we’re about. We’re really looking forward to Sunday afternoon.”
Although Racing have been enjoying their best run of results, with five successive wins, their form in la Defense Arena has not been particularly imposing, with five wins, a draw (against bottom-placed Agen) and three defeats, by Bayonne, Lyon and Bordeaux-Begles. But they have beaten Saracens (30-10) and Ospreys (40-27) at home in Europe.
Lineout contesting
“I’ve always been impressed by Racing, they’ve a fantastic club and an incredible squad,” said van Graan.
“It’s a world-class team. Certain parts of their game are in my view the best in Europe, possibly the world. I’ve said it before, their lineout contesting is incredible and they play with a lot of speed and big moments.
“It’s an incredible club. We always knew this was going to be a tough pool and we learnt quite a lot the last time we were in Paris, two years ago; incredible game of rugby; fast, warm, noise – very different to what is currently outside in Limerick,” said van Graan of Munster’s 34-30 defeat at the same stage two seasons ago.
With John Cooney on fire for Ulster, Conor Murray's form has also come under scrutiny, but the Munster head coach maintained: "I thought the last two games he was really good and against Saracens away I thought he managed the game really well. He kicked well, defended well and [had] no issue with his pass.
“I really felt he managed the game pretty well on Friday night. Any ‘9’ and ‘10’, if your forwards don’t dominate it makes it difficult for you and I thought he did that pretty well on Friday night.
“I’ve said before, that’s why there’s a national coach and he will select whoever he feels is the best. For Munster, the last two games, I’ve been satisfied with Conor.”
