[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]M[/su_dropcap]unster are in the happy situation that makes this game against Benetton something of a box tick party. The aim is to win, always, as per usual but the context surrounding this particular game has taken the pressure off entirely. It’s not a bad place for the squad to be. There are no larger goals to achieve outside of winning the game for the sake of a win itself. We are qualified for Europe, we are in a final next week and the team selection reflects these two facts. Numerous young players have been selected to start and finish this game along with a few guys from the wider squad. Players like Carbery, Kleyn, Coombes, Cronin, Scannell, O’Byrne, Holland, Ryan, Archer, De Allende, Haley and others who will likely start for Munster in that PRO14 final next week have been put on ice for the weekend with bigger games to come. This presents an opportunity for others to come in and smash some minutes during a season where it’s been incredibly difficult to get a lot of these guys out onto the pitch.
In a regular, non-pandemic season we’d have the likes of Knox, O’Connor, Barron, McHenry and others playing AIL or even taking part in the A tournaments that have been touted for so long but, for most of these guys, it’s been training reps, the odd A-interpro and that’s about it.
This is their chance to impress. I’m particularly happy for Clonakilty’s Cian Hurley who impressed the hell out of me during the recent Munster A vs Connacht Eagles game up in the Sportsground. He’s currently in the National Talent Squad and looks a good bet to make the full Munster academy next season.
As for the game itself, Munster have faced Benetton quite recently and only narrowly escaped with a win after JJ Hanrahan’s last minute heroics. I’ve said quite regularly that Benetton are the best no-win team we’ve seen in this league for a while. Liam Coombes spoke this week about how unlucky Benetton have been in certain games. That sounds like presser-speak but he’s spot on – Benetton have been a few bounces of a ball away from picking up at least three or four wins and you only need to look at our game against them back in January for proof of that.
This game will be a similar challenge. Benetton have a hugely experienced side selected here with a lot of in-game cohesion. A lot of that cohesion has been spent losing games, yes, but when you look at the new combinations and youth all the way through the Munster squad, you can see the potential for some sticky situations in this fixture.
Benetton Rugby: 15. Jayden Hayward, 14. Ratuva Tavuyara, 13. Joaquin Riera, 12. Luca Morisi, 11. Angelo Esposito; 10. Tommaso Allan, 9. Dewaldt Duvenage (c); 1. Nicola Quaglio, 2. Tomas Baravalle, 3. Filippo Alongi, 4. Irné Herbst, 5. Eli Snyman, 6. Alberto Sgarbi, 7. Manuel Zuliani, 8 Giovanni Pettinelli
Replacements: 16. Corniel Els, 17. Thomas Gallo, 18. Tiziano Pasquali, 19. Nicola Piantella, 20. Marco Barbini, 21. Luca Petrozzi, 22. Tommaso Benvenuti, 23 Leonardo Sarto
My contention that Benetton are much better than their THIRTEEN GAME losing streak suggests is a controversial one, I’ll admit that.
It’s got the ring of a gonky wELL akShuALLy take but I think it holds up to scrutiny. There’s the evidence of the last time we played them, of course, where Munster were essentially gifted two tries in the first ten minutes through Benetton errors. The rest of the game was really quite close.
Benetton have conceded roughly the same number of tries as Dragons, Glasgow, Connacht and Zebre over the course of the season. In attack, the 27 tries they’ve scored is roughly in the ballpark with all other non-Irish teams. Glasgow, for example, have 32 tries – the highest non-Munster/Leinster/Ulster/Connacht tally – so Benetton aren’t a million miles away from that standard. They throw the second-most offloads in the tournament, they have a decent lineout and while their scrum is heavily penalised, that has been unbalanced by a few bad performances and isn’t something that undermines them every game. Benetton have the 3rd best disciplinary record in the PRO14 while they’ve also racked up six losing bonus points, which is the joint highest tally in the three main European leagues.
So why are they winless?
Because Benetton have made a habit of collapsing in the final quarter of games. If you go back and look at all their narrow losses this season, the key damage was done to them from winning positions in the last 20 minutes. Connacht at home, Scarlets at home, Ospreys away, both Zebre games, Munster at home, Cardiff away and then again at home last week. There are more, actually, but these were all games that Benetton had a very solid foothold in until the last 20 minutes where late tries, penalties and, in Munster’s case, drop-goals have cost them wins.
In another season with a few different bounces of the ball, Benetton could easily be sitting fourth, say, in this conference without playing wildly better than they have. But to say it’s all down the bounce of a ball would be disingenuous; the biggest issue is their cardio dropoff.
People think that cardio drop off is lads with their hands on their knees wheezing their energy gel up onto the grass but it’s rarely as obvious as that. More often than not it’s a small collective dip in the standard of the execution of the basics. Their lineout, for example, gets worse as the game progresses despite freshening up their pack the same as everyone else.
Munster exploited that against Benetton late in the game back in January but it’ll be even more exaggerated here. Favretto, a good back row jumping target for Benetton, isn’t playing here so Benetton’s lineout will be particularly focused on their two heavy jumpers in Herbst and Snyman along with Giovanni Pettinelli as a secondary target.
You might be wondering what Alberto Sgarbi, nominally a midfielder, is doing on the blindside flank in the above teamsheet, too. That isn’t an error. Sgarbi has played in the back row seven times over the last two seasons despite playing the vast majority of his games for Benetton and Italy in midfield. He’s plenty big enough for the role during phase play but it will come at a cost in the scrum over time and as a limiting factor in the lineout. His partner on the flank is Marco Zuliani who is an inexperienced lineout jumper.
I think there will be excellent value in Munster using Thomas Ahern and Jack O’Donoghue as Air Raid Defenders against Benetton at the front and middle of the lineout. Ahern, in particular, when combined with the power front lifting of Knox and Salanoa could be a real threat to Benetton’s lineout schemes, especially when they look to shorten the lineout to get Sgarbi into the midfield with Pettinelli to go after Scannell and McHenry.
Does this increase the value for Munster playing a little more kick-focused on our phase play? I think so. That also plays into the game we want to encourage with Benetton too; pressure their fitness on kicking duels, squeeze them in the maul, and then execute our opportunities on transition – breakdown, knock-on, set-piece steal and kicking error – when they arrive in the latter part of the first half and from 60 minutes on in the second half.
