Johann Van Graan’s Road Warriors.

I could probably sell that t-shirt. I just need a design. While I’m working on that, consider that Munster have played six of their last eight games away from home and have only lost one of those. Our last three games in the PRO14 since the defeat to Leinster in January have been a map of “tricky places to go” during a test window – Treviso, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Munster have won all three of those games without ever playing consistently well during any of them but the wins count the same nonetheless. Next week against Connacht provides an opportunity to nail on a PRO14 place against Leinster or Ulster with a few games to spare and I think that would be an apt reward for what Munster have done over the course of the regular PRO14 season to date.

These last three games in particular have shown the kind of grit that a lot of sides just don’t have. This week was a different type of grit, but grit all the same. Munster had a fair bit of the ball here, most of the territory but still found it tough going to put away a tricky, spirited Cardiff Blues side who ran their system’s almost exactly as we would have expected pre-game.

In fact, their opening try was an exact illustration of their 3-3-1 system that I highlighted in the Red Eye. Look at Thomas slotting into the “joint” position between the ruck and the three pod before finding the wide pass to the open man.

Sure, McCarthy needs to do way, way better here in numbering up on his man but this is the exact kind of play that Cardiff’s system is designed to produce. Their width off the ruck and then off the playmaker got the ball into an area of the defensive line where Munster’s defensive line was more lightly packed.

That try was a bit of a sucker punch based on the run of play in the first half. Munster had been quite effective in working Cardiff across the field off our set-piece launches and in transition.

There’s some really nice passing and structure here. The second clip was an example of an over-eagerness that affected our play, at times. In this instance, Jack O’Sullivan knocked the ball on but he was clearly a lad who wanted to get out there and show what he was about. The last few weeks – months, really – have been dominated by playing the conditions. Munster are a side that have been looking to build more offensive weapons over the last two seasons but sometimes weather conditions dictate that you manage the game in the old, hard ways. Boot to ball, maul, impact off #9, repeat. We like the idea of doing more but a greasy ball plus driving wind and rain sometimes mean that it’s a pipe dream.

Friday night was perfect, though. A perfect pitch, no wind, no rain – let’s play, right? That’s clearly what we wanted to do.

It didn’t always work. But when you’ve been training for playoff rugby in the springtime, you want to dust off some of the handling and structures you were building in a game like this. I think we did a pretty good job of working our way into the Cardiff 22 with our handling and structures but our issue came in converting those entries into points.

We’ve been quite good at stitching these opportunities into penalties or tries over the last few weeks so losing out because of errors or losing rucks we’d back ourselves to lockdown usually jarred a bit. When you combine those errors in the 22 with some slack, hesitant passing, low percentage offloads that didn’t come off and that over-playing we spoke about earlier and you’ve got the recipe for some janky moments in possession.

Those losses were momentum sappers. It wasn’t all bad, far from it.

This was a fantastic lineout strike converted into an excellent opportunity by McCarthy’s break, Cronin’s pick up and O’Byrne just straight ballin’ non-stop. That was pulled back for a penalty to make it 5-3.

The next time we got into the 22, midway through the second half, we made no mistake. A bit of razzle-dazzle got us in position but when we secured the break, we hammered through the tight phases. Look at Salanoa buying the space for Kleyn to finish with a nice bit of ruck gravity.

The end-game was decided by the forwards, for the most part. Cardiff and Munster traded turnovers and errors but when it came down to nailing the game shut, it was in the scrum and the maul.

Three big scrums, one huge 22m maul and that was that for Cardiff.

Elements of our performance – like some of the work in the lineout on top of what I’ve already mentioned – turned this game into more of a shootout than it needed to be. We’ll also wonder about Ben Thomas’ missed kicks and the pressure they could have wielded on the scoreboard but Munster rode their luck and, when the time came to go out and win the game, they had the wherewithal to do just that.

That counts for something during tricky test window games on the road and Munster deserve a lot of credit for pulling a game that had the potential to spiral out of control into a crucial step on the way to a final.

Notable Players

This was a pretty decent performance. I rated Nick McCarthy a little lower here because his pass consistency wasn’t what it needed to be in my opinion. He seems to be a little unbalanced on his right side and his range – something very important in Munster’s style – is a little iffy when we’re playing at pace. His short game is really strong though, as are his instincts for a break around the ruck when the opposition drop off. Strangely, I think he’s perfectly suited to the way that Leinster are playing right now but when we are rolling with high tempo rucks, the width we need can stress his skillset a little too much and I feel that is what happened here.

Rory Scannell had a quiet enough game for me after starting brightly. A few defensive slips didn’t help but the game just seemed to pass him by from an involvements perspective until he was replaced midway through the second half.

I thought Fineen Wycherley had a few issues with the lineout calling from a tactical progression perspective – overplaying certain schemes, for example – but it’s a tough skill to learn over the course of a season. I thought his work at the breakdown was really strong and he scrummaged really strongly on the loosehead side. Billy Holland did a good job closing out.

I was delighted to see Joey Carbery make a successful return from injury in the last fifteen minutes of this game. He’s a crucial part of the puzzle for Munster this season and his fitness will be of crucial importance to Ireland too.

He’ll take time to get back to this best – and Munster certainly won’t push him – but it was good to see Carbery being the cold-hearted assassin off the tee that he was prior to his injury in the last few minutes. Draining it from outside the 5m hash in your first game back? Not a problem for Munster’s Own Joey Carbery.

Kevin O’Byrne is something of a unicorn in the modern game as a hooker. If you looked at his on-ball involvements, you’d see he’s got more passes than both sets of centres. His lineout was pretty good, scrummaging too but his ball-handling was the real highlight.

If someone were to tell Kevin O’Byrne to stop balling, that balling was now actually illegal, he would have to become an outlaw because balling is written into his DNA. He’s as comfortable standing at first receiver as he is throwing into the lineout. Quality.

Chris Cloete looks like a guy who’s getting back to the guy who tore it up for Munster in 2017/18. He’s looking dangerous in the wide channels, he’s making breaks, he’s working his arse off in defence and he’s winning turnovers at an astonishing rate.

When Cloete is playing like this, he can turn games with his ability to get over rucks that have no business being stolen but that’s the thing with the Gunshow – when he’s on, he’s on.

I was really happy for Jack O’Sullivan. He’s had a few tough days off the bench this season when the flow of games went against him – basically making tackles and tracking defensive rucks. With that comes a bit of pressure when you’re given a start because you want to impose yourself on-ball the way in a way that shows your value, your selling points as a player. Any young player becomes a top player because they produce moments in sequence and Jack O’Sullivan made a good start on that here. His first half was really good from a ball-carrying perspective – good pace onto the ball, nice footwork and he beat a few defenders too. He had a bad knock-on and will be disappointed with his ruck security on one occasion when we were really flowing, plus he faded a little in the second half but I really liked what I saw in that first half. There’s more to come from this guy.

Jack O’Donoghue just keeps building his resume as a senior player. He’s settled perfectly into his identity as a player and this game is a perfect example of that. What does he offer? Top-quality lineout work – seriously, his athleticism is really something else at the set-piece.

His pace in open play is outstanding and he’s regularly beating outside backs for pace on breaks.

He’s operating at a very high level as a Combo Flanker – he’s got a tonne of tools at the lineout, is hugely effective at the maul, works hard in defence and when he eventually gets the ball in a bit of space, he’s going to tear someone up. As the pitches harden up and the weather improves in general, Jack O’Donoghue is looking like a player that can really impact for Munster either starting or off the bench.

I have a simple truism over the last two seasons – when Jean Kleyn plays for Munster, we play better. This game was a perfect illustration of that in a superb, 80-minute performance that encapsulated everything he’s good at – rock-solid defence, top-class lineout security, powerful carrying, hard-ass scrummaging and a meat-pie to top it all off.

On the maul that won the game for Munster, you can see Kleyn’s influence. He took the lineout – one of seven in total – but watch him disrupt the front of the Cardiff counter-shove.

He’s preventing Cardiff from getting a unified shove at the front of the maul and dragging two players along in weak positions that Munster can – and ultimately do – surge around to secure the win. This was a top drawer, heavy metal performance at the coal face from Jean Kleyn. ★★★★★

 

The Wally Ratings: Cardiff Blues (A)

The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.  

Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.

Names	Rating
James Cronin	★★★
Kevin O'Byrne	★★★★
John Ryan	★★★
Jean Kleyn	★★★★★
Fineen Wycherley	★★★
Jack O'Donoghue	★★★★
Chris Cloete	★★★★
Jack O'Sullivan	★★★★
Nick McCarthy	★★
JJ Hanrahan	★★★
Shane Daly	★★★
Damian De Allende	★★★
Rory Scannell	★★
Calvin Nash	★★★
Mike Haley	★★★
Niall Scannell	★★★
Liam O'Connor	★★★
Roman Salanoa	★★★
Billy Holland	★★★
Gavin Coombes	★★★
Paddy Patterson	DNP
Joey Carbery	★★★
Darren Sweetnam	N/A