Ahead of their marquee sell-out fixture against Leinster on St Stephen’s Day, Munster have revived their emotional investment in the Heineken Champions Cup with an invaluable 17-6 win away to Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens which Graham Rowntree admitted was a hugely significant victory in the contest of their season.
“It will show what we do in training works, in a big competition,” said Rowntree, adding: “There was a lot riding on this game. We were disappointed after last week and coming here was always going to be hard in dealing with their attack, their width and their tempo. So it’s huge for us going forward.
“It will give us a nice build-in to next week because we’ve got three games over 11 days over Christmas. It’s going to be all hands on deck but this will give us a launch pad into that hopefully.”
[ Coombes double and epic defensive effort gets Munster back on trackOpens in new window ]
Munster may merely have risen from eighth to sixth in Pool B, and they are also one of six teams locked on five points. They will need to beat Northampton in the return game at Thomond Park on January 7th, especially bearing in mind Munster then face the daunting return meeting with Toulouse in the pink city eight days later in the Stade Ernest Wallon. The five-time winners beat Sale 45-19 there on Saturday to move alongside La Rochelle in Pool B. But Munster are right back in the conversation now.
Prior to an increasingly sodden, feisty and fractious second period, Munster’s inventive, ambitious brand of rugby had earned a 17-6 interval lead through two tries by Gavin Coombes, but Rowntree maintained: “We were never in control at half-time. We made that point to the lads.
“There was a lot of stuff we needed to do better. It was all about the next 10 minutes and we had a chance. We were playing well, going into their 22 and we made a couple of errors and spent the rest of the second half defending.
“So half-time was about being better. I didn’t anticipate such a defensive workout in the second half, constantly on our goal-line but going forward it will do us really good.”
The brave selection of Jack Crowley for his first start at ‘12′, and in just his eighth competitive start overall for Munster had mixed results. His footwork provided an outlet, particularly in the more favourable conditions of the first period, but less so in the sodden second-half arm wrestle where Northampton’s bigger array of bigger carriers came to the fore.
“Pretty good, not perfect,” was Rowntree’s honest appraisal. “Jack can play 10, 12, 15, tighthead prop. He’s a luxury for us. It wasn’t perfect, we’ll have a look at that this week. We’re lucky we’ve got the calmness of Rory Scannell able to come off the bench in that area of the field.”
Much of the plaudits understandably went to Coombes and other forwards, but Antoine Frisch made some fine defensive reads as well as some classy touches, while once again Mike Haley oozed composure, even stepping in to scrumhalf during Casey’s sinbinning, notably with one perfect touchfinder.
“He’s class. Another guy who’s calm under pressure. He was playing nine for us at one point, and 15. There were some big performances out there. Tadhg [Beirne] got man of the match, Antoine, pretty classy in midfield, John Ryan good again and the guys off the bench pivotal as well.”
All in all, this leaves Munster in much better stead for their meeting with Leinster when the ex-pats home for Christmas help ensure a welcome full house for the first time since pre-pandemic days.
“Expats coming home? Wow, I look forward to meeting them,” joked Rowntree, but he knows full well from experience the enormity of this fixture.
“I remember my first Stephen’s Day game three years ago, a huge occasion for us. This gives us momentum into that, and more headaches in selection.”
In contrast to Munster, Ulster sit 10th in Pool B on two points after their defiant 36-29 defeat by La Rochelle at an empty Aviva Stadium after they had to switch their game from a frozen Kingspan to a fixture which had grim echoes of lockdown.
With January fixtures away to La Rochelle and at home to Sale, their hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stages look remote, and Dan McFarland could not contain his displeasure.
The switch could mean an estimated loss of €800,000 for the province when all the sums are done, and McFarland said: “I’m angry. I’m angry about it. I’ve got to speak up about it,” said McFarland.
“I’m a stakeholder in this competition because I’ve been involved in it for so long. I love it. My opinion is that we were there [Belfast] this morning [Saturday] at 10 o’clock, 9.30, and that pitch was playable,” said McFarland.
“We knew it was going to be ready because the weather was predicted to change overnight. But that decision was taken away from us. The bottom line is the decision was wrong. It could have been played at Ravenhill.”
