Competing in their first final for four seasons, it's odd to think that Munster are in relatively uncharted territory of late. There are a myriad of potential distractions for Munster, not the least of them the knowledge that this will be Paul O'Connell's last game with that number five red jersey on his broad back.
Not everyone can write farewell scripts like Brian O’Driscoll, but the desire to send him off into the sunset, whether it be retirement or as seems more likely now, Toulon, can either be an inspiration or a distraction.
Aside from O’Connell, players such as Andrew Smith, Paddy Butler and JJ Hanrahan (for the next two years anyway) will be playing their last game for Munster, albeit as head coach Anthony Foley conceded: “Paul has done above and beyond for the province, for Young Munster and for Ireland.
“It wasn’t spoken about last week, it hasn’t been mentioned this week. I think everyone’s intelligent enough to understand the situation, to go about doing their job. If we all do our jobs to the best of our ability, we’ll get the outcome we deserve. If we start thinking about different things and getting distracted, getting emotional, then that’s a negative, we want to stay on top of it and be positive around it and go and give it our best performance and see where that takes us.
“The final is an occasion when you don’t play the occasion, you play the game.”
While preparations have not been perfect, Foley recalled how five forwards were unable to train in the early part of the week before the 2006 Heineken Cup final win over Biarritz.
Optimistic
However, even Foley did not sound too optimistic about the chances of
Conor Murray
recovering from the knee injury he suffered following a late tackle by Dan Lydiate onSaturday.
While the scrum-half visited a knee specialist yesterday, a medial ligament injury normally means at least a couple of weeks on the sidelines, although at least Cathal Sheridan is fit again as a potential back-up to Duncan Williams.
While Peter O’Mahony didn’t train yesterday so as to continue resting the hip flexor problem that forced him off early in the second-half on Saturday, the player himself was confident he would be fit to play come Saturday. Simon Zebo remained in Cork to observe the return-to-play protocols, pending further evaluation.
Losing Murray, whose game management and all-round execution are vital cogs in the Munster wheel, would be a huge blow, as evidenced by his absence from the pivotal European Champions Cup defeat to Saracens, which extinguished Munster's knockout hopes.
The last time that happened, in 2011, Munster went to a warm weather camp and came back revived to win the league title, and the coach’s request that they do the same this time round was granted by the Munster CEO Garrett Fitzgerald when they went to La Santa in Lanzarote in European quarter-final week.
“We started to get a better understanding of what we were looking for. We got good conversations going, good meetings, good togetherness and from there I think Ospreys were the only team to beat us.”
Winning a first trophy in four seasons would also be a reward for Fitzgerald and the Munster Professional Game Board, said Foley, “for backing a young coaching group. Many would not have backed us to be in this situation.”
Win trophies
Highlighting the growth of players like Stephen Archer and Denis Hurley, Foley said: “A lot of these guys are getting to an age of 25, 26, 27 – a good age for a team to start looking to win trophies, to kick on with their careers. If we can start with that and hopefully do something on Saturday, then that would be great.
“If we don’t and then we end up losing, it’s not all doom and gloom,” he added, citing how Munster have developed individually and collectively.
“It’s a continuous progression. Pick up trophies, get pats on the back along the way – well and good, but I think for Munster we want to be in these competitions, to be in the knockout stages, to be in the finals and we want to be in with a chance of lifting silverware every year.
Now, there’s a lot of teams that want that as well and that’s why it’s so contested, so hopefully we can get there and get over the line, but it would be a hell of a performance to get past Glasgow.”
Ian Keatley’s mental well-being will also be significant after his two-from-seven return last Saturday in difficult conditions that flummoxed Dan Biggar and JJ Hanrahan as well.
“After the game, all I would have said to him is he’ll be judged on what he does next,” said Foley. “You can’t do anything about what’s happened, you literally can’t. You can beat yourself up, but the most important thing is how you turn up on Monday.”
Keatley has demonstrated his mental strength before. “You remember the Aviva for Leinster. Going into that game there were a lot of question marks around him. He came out that day and probably put in one of his best performances of the season. We’d like similar but we’d understand if it’s not as dominant as that, but if it is we’ll be well happy.”
