Ulster 17 Munster 24

The biggest win of the season so far

A season that has been waiting for a defining Munster performance finally got one in Ravenhill. Munster were aggressive, disciplined, mentally tough and tactically spot on against a strong Ulster side that hasn't lost in Belfast since March 2021.

Match Importance

Match Intensity

Standard of Opposition

Match Quality

4.4

This was a critically important game for Munster. When I wrote before the game that this was a bigger game, pound for pound, than the win over Exeter last Saturday and it sounded a little hyperbolic but then, Saturday morning, I allowed myself to think of what would have happened if Munster lost on Friday night instead of winning it with, for me, the best, most composed performance of the season to date.

We’d be in seventh, possibly even eight by the time Sunday was done, and in palpable danger of playing Challenge Cup rugby next season.

Instead, we’re sitting in third, looking at a home game to cement second in the overall URC log before having a rattle against Leinster up in the Aviva and real hope of finishing the regular season out strong. Whatever happens now, bar an astonishing collapse, Munster will be well placed in the URC knockouts and almost certainly playing Champions Cup rugby next season.

That’s how big this game was. A literal sliding door moment that could define how this season is perceived.

♛ ♛ ♛

That perception battle is already starting to shift. You can feel it. That’s the value of beating a side like Ulster who, themselves, have big wins over Leinster, Toulouse, Clermont and others this season. When you beat a side like that at home in a game as important as this, you take a bit of their shine for yourself.

That shine isn’t to be scoffed at. With enough shine, everyone in the organisation has something to play up to each week. When the pressure is on – as it was after that dismal defeat to Leinster – everything is that bit harder, saltier and narkier. That can be useful, at times, but playing and training with the shine of big wins over good teams puts a bounce into everything and everyone. It is how you build trophy-winning squads. When Munster are prepping for the big games to come this season and next, they’ll remember these last two weeks. The belief. The satisfaction. The knowledge that you can get the job done when the pressure is on and, make no mistake, the pressure was on here. A must-win league game away from home against a side that haven’t lost at home in the league all season long? Dire, unpredictable consequences if you lost?

That’s where the real players – the big men in your squad – stand up.

In last season’s Rainbow Cup, I was in Thomond Park when Munster beat Ulster 38-10. The general stats on that game – Ulster 54% possession and 51% territory – were duplicated almost exactly in Friday’s game at the Kingspan where Ulster had 55% possession and the same 51% of the territory. These are the bare minimum of match data but they show a specific approach that is successful against this Ulster side, regardless of personnel.

Kick long, meet Ulster on transition in between the 10m lines and then defend them. Don’t overdo it on the breakdown entries – because you don’t want to give them easy penalty access to bring their maul into the game – stay active in the defensive line and then mop up their reset kicks.

If you can do all of those things, with discipline and, at least, collision parity on the defensive side of the ball as key priorities, you can make like very difficult for Ulster to get into their preferred mode of attack, which is launching off the lineout maul from inside the 22. Without that platform, Ulster’s key weaknesses at halfback and their over-reliance on McCloskey to generate compressions in the middle space of the attacking line can be schemed for and “read”, up to a certain point.

Even off the lineout from the same space between the 10m lines can be read under those principles of McCloskey as the key compressor and Hume/Baloucoune as pinch and run options off him.

Earls and Farrell are aware of the threat and can cover where Ulster look to move the ball because they know that Ulster want to exaggerate the impact of McCloskey on Munster’s #10/#12 channel and then they want to play off that effect. But when you know what Ulster’s tendencies are on the set-piece when the maul, in particular, isn’t a close-range try threat, you can read large elements of their attacking intent and option taking.

Our overall kicking strategy looked to attack the same principles in Ulster’s first one or two phases after the transition. We wanted to kick long, meet them between the 10m lines and then;

• Stay out of all but the most obvious of breakdowns so you can…
• Fill the field, encourage Ulster to kick
• Keep a drift and a place hitter on McCloskey that can slide beyond a compression if needs be
• Make your hits and stress Ulster’s offensive ruck recycle in the wider channels

Munster’s killer second try was based on these principles.

I wrote about this pre-game with the value of attacking Ulster’s return of the long kick down-field. If you can handle that first run back and the phase right after without giving up a linebreak or a poor collision point, there will be opportunities to stress them if you can win a turnover.

Ulster’s entire pack build is built on being able to retain possession through the forwards (and maul heavy and low) so any loss of possession on the second or third phase post-transition can let you have a crack at that heavy middle six. Munster did just that for the try that, in large part, won the game for us.

It was a smart tactical plan executed well for the vast majority of the game. Yes, we’ll be annoyed that the opportunity we identified on Ulster’s box kick went 50/50 for tries scored and conceded.

The first kicking sequence lead directly to the second try illustrated above. The latter lead to Ulster scoring a close-range maul try that brought them right back into the game on the scoreboard and injected them with belief right when they needed it most.

Ulster were pushing really hard for the middle part of the second half but it was two massive moments from Thomas Ahern and Alex Kendellen that turned the tide Munster’s way when it counted.

That lineout steal prevented what would have probably been a score to bring the game back to a point and Alex Kendellen’s big breakdown steal – generated by defending Ulster in between the 10m lines in such a way that it forced them into overplaying – put the game out of easy reach. Ulster kept firing away but we had the guile and the physicality to keep them at arm’s length until the end.

This kind of performance is valuable because of the rarity of the achievement. Ulster are a good side who, while incomplete in key areas for me – loosehead and halfbacks – have managed to go unbeaten at home all season in the league (and only three times total since 2017) because of the clarity and physicality inherent in their game plan under McFarland. They know what they’re good at and, I think, what they aren’t so beating them here is notable in and of itself, even before you factor in the context and pressure of our own needs.

A big performance and result, right when it was needed most.

Notable Players

Damian De Allende is a world-class player. I’ve been guilty of diluting that term, at times, but when it comes to De Allende, he is the purest expression of the term as far as midfielders go. Think of a thing he does even averagely – you can’t. He’s a better passer than he’ll ever be given credit for, his attacking instincts are top drawer, he is as good a lock-down defensive midfielder as you’ll ever see and he has the power and drive of a flanker. In this game, he consistently stopped up McCloskey and, as a result, defanged a lot of Ulster’s attack but it wasn’t just midfielder on midfielder stuff, he showed up everywhere making good decision after good decision over and over again. Quality. ★★★★★

Alex Kendellen just doesn’t have an “off” switch. He’s so good and so complete for his age that I’ve mentally stopped judging him like an academy player performing out of his skin because he’s far, far beyond that, in reality. His performance here was like something you’d expect from a senior guy, a well-established pro. That shouldn’t be Alex Kendellen because he’s only 21 but here he is doing it all the same. As good a young player as I’ve ever seen anywhere at his age and, if he keeps this up, he could tour New Zealand this summer in the wider squad. I mean, why not? Outstanding. ★★★★★

The Wally Ratings: Ulster (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.