Glory is fleeting so grab it while it’s close. It’ll be gone before you know it.

When Andrew Conway caught Francois Trinh-Duc’s attempted exit in the 74th minute of last month’s pulsating European Champions Cup Quarterfinal, his mind was pretty clear. He wasn’t thinking about what he had to do to score a try, he was just reading what was in front of him and trying to play it as it came to him. He ended up scoring one of the most memorable tries Thomond Park has ever seen but is it just me, or does it seem like an age ago already? Maybe that’s professional sport these days – even the most epic moments become old news before the adrenaline has even fully left your system.

But those epic moments are why players do what they do. The cruel part is, to get more of them you have to forget the ones that came before.

For fans, moments like Andrew Conway’s try become timeless. He scorched Toulon just three weeks ago on Saturday. Three weeks! It feels like a month or two doesn’t it? Basking in moments like that (and endless replaying them on Youtube) is something fans can do but for players, I think they become distant memories quite quickly. They have to. The relentless grind of the game demands it.

Rugby is particularly ruthless when it comes to punishing players who are looking backwards when others are looking forwards. If you’re too focused – too satisfied could be another description – with how you played in the last round, the next round can and will kick your ass down the road like you owe it money.

The Next Job

When you have a live mic in professional rugby player’s face, it’s only a matter of time before you hear about how they’re all focused on “the next job” and “the next game”. It’s as regular as clockwork and, sure, they probably can’t tell you that they’re half-bricking it ahead of the weekend or that there are times when they’d probably rather be doing anything else as the clock ticks down to Bordeaux but that doesn’t mean the “focus on the job to come” part isn’t true.

If you lose that laser focus on the road ahead, disaster awaits. Especially in semi-finals and especially in European Rugby.

I once heard a coach muttering to one of his selectors on a South Island of New Zealand sideline in the midst of an old-fashioned semi-final dungeon pumping that he’d love a team of “goldfish” because they’d be easier to prepare for big games. His team had a big result in the previous game, got ahead of themselves mentally and got wrecked. Confidence is just a hair away from the empty puff of bravado and it doesn’t take much for one to become the other. The margins at this level are small and those little mental grains of rice can tip the scales.

Forget the last game, win or lose, and forget about what happens the weekend after – there is only now. The power to forget is something every elite player needs, I think.

Munster’s squad were helped to forget the quarter-final win in a unique way.

There were players still feeling the bruises from Toulon when they packed off to South Africa for two weeks the Monday after the game and a few thousand kilometres – and nine vital PRO14 points later – they find themselves heading off on Glory Road yet again. Refreshed? Probably not at this time of the year but re-energized? Possibly. Sometimes getting out of the “bubble” can be as good as a mini-preseason in focusing minds, tightening bonds and building all the little intangibles that help a team win.

If intangibles help the cause, they’ll be vital in the search for tangibles and a first European final since 2008. Has it been that long? It has. Since Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara lifted the then Heineken Cup in the darkness of the Millenium Stadium, Munster have lost five semi-finals; Leinster, Biarritz, Clermont, Toulon and Saracens last season. Forget the other four – they’re meaningless for most of this squad – and focus on the learning of last season. Was the loss to Saracens a learning experience? Or was it just another loss?

We’ll see on Sunday. That doesn’t mean a win necessarily – although that would be great – it will mean a performance more befitting of what Munster are all about than what we saw last season in the Aviva on multiple occasions.

Win or learn, they say? Let’s see what we’ve learned.

The Teams

Racing 92

15. Louis Dupichot; 14. Teddy Thomas, 13. Virimi Vakatawa, 12. Henry Chavancy, 11. Marc Andreu; 10. Pat Lambie, 9. Maxime Machenaud; 1. Eddy Ben Arous, 2. Camille Chat, 3. Cedate Gomes Sa; 4. Donnacha Ryan, 5. Leone Nakarawa, 6. Wenceslas Lauret, 7. Bernard Le Roux, 8. Yannick Nyanga

Replacements: 16. Dimitri Szarzewski, 17. Vasil Kakovin, 18. Viliamu Afatia, 19. Antonie Claassen, 20. Baptiste Chouzenoux, 21. Teddy Iribaren, 22. Dan Carter, 23. Joe Rokocoko

Munster

15. Andrew Conway; 14. Keith Earls, 13. Sammy Arnold, 12. Rory Scannell, 11. Alex Wootton; 10. Ian Keatley, 9. Conor Murray; 1. Dave Kilcoyne, 2. Niall Scannell, 3. Stephen Archer; 4. Jean Kleyn, 5. Billy Holland; 6. Peter O’Mahony (C), 7. Jack O’Donoghue, 8. CJ Stander.

Replacements: 16. Rhys Marshall, 17. James Cronin, 18. John Ryan, 19. Gerbrandt Grobler, 20. Robin Copeland, 21. James Hart, 22. JJ Hanrahan, 23. Simon Zebo

---

The Red Eye Report: Racing 92

An “A” would be considered top class by Champions Cup standards, a “B” would be considered good by regular Champions Cup standard, a “C” would be considered decent by good PRO14 level, a “D” would be considered below par by PRO14 standards and an “E” would be something I’d consider an exploitable weakness. 

Set Piece

Offensive Scrummaging – A
Defensive Scrummaging – B
Attacking Lineout – B
Defensive Lineout – B
Offensive Maul – B
Defensive Maul – B

Open Play

Defensive Structure – C
Phase Play Power – A
Attacking Creativity – B
Structured Attack Off Set Piece – B
Structured Defence Off Set Piece – B
Overall Fitness – B
Kicking – B
Back Three Kick Positioning – B

---

I’ve looked at Racing 92 quite a bit this season – they were in our pool, after all – and one thing I’ve learned from this job is that you can “over-expose” yourself to a team when you’re trying to analyse what they’re doing in multiple games. Munster have played Racing four times in the last two years and prepared to face them five times, and the same is true for Racing. That kind of familiarity can lead to “they always” errors.

“They always drop off after four phases.”

“They always feed to the flyhalf side on centre-field rucks.”

“They always go to the middle on Ryan when they’re looking to set up a maul.”

Until the day that they don’t and you’re left looking at your laptop wondering what the hell just happened.

I’ve done a lot of stuff on Racing 92 this year already, so it’s worth having a look at again. Here’s a piece on their lineout work after the game in Thomond Park, and the Red Eye before the game in Paris back in January. Most of what I covered in these two articles still applies ahead of Sunday, so I won’t repeat myself on those. Do have a look at the Red Eye in particular, because a lot of the work on their offensive lineout and scrummaging is still the same – especially the lineout variation that lead to this try.

That one still grinds my gears.

I’ve watched Racing extensively over the last few weeks and tried to nail down a few of the constant things they like to do and reference it back to the game they won against us in Paris.

Work Off The Lineout

All three of Racing’s tries in Paris came in the aftermath of lineout possession.

There’s the one above, obviously, but the other tries that bookmarked the beginning of each half came in the aftermath of successful lineout possession where the main break came within two/three phases of the throw.

Here’s the first one;

Racing got quick ball off the top of the lineout and hit Chavancy on a hard, straight line into Keatley and Scannell. Keatley and Scannell handled his line excellently but couldn’t prevent Chavancy from planting the ball back quickly for the next phase.

Munster would eventually concede a try after coughing up two penalty advantages for offside and Racing powered over from close range. The field position that Racing earned off this set piece was crucial and this kind of movement off the lineout/maul was their main go-to for manipulating the Munster defence and working off the looks we gave them.

Let’s have a look at how they used their maul;

A fairly simple set-up at the front of the lineout through Nakawara allowed Racing to perform a heavy peel around Munster’s initial counter-maul. Racing got all 8 forwards lined up on a narrow point and got a full 8 on 4 in place.

Once they had that, they were able to use Archer and Kleyn’s momentum to “peel” around the corner for a big break. Racing would score a penalty in the phases after this break to stretch the game out to 10 points.

In the build up to their second try, they did almost the exact same;

There’s that same heavy peel set up from a Nakawara jump at the front. Munster didn’t contest this one in the air – which explains why the movement was slower – but it’s still an 8 on 5.

That allows the heavy peel and, once Munster commit numbers, it allows Chat to “whip” into Keatley off the back of the maul and immediately, Racing have good field position and numbers.

The maul is in two parts;

The first part of the maul absorbs Munster’s counter-maul and the second part slides off the angle and space created by the first part. It’s incredibly successful.

Look at the men on the ground post-maul;

That gives Racing an initial numbers advantage that allows them to drag us across the pitch and they’d eventually score in the corner five phases later.

Those 8-man mauls burn a lot of energy but they show the respect that Racing head for Munster’s numbers down counter-maul. Against the Cheetahs, for example, Munster stuffed or sacked NINE Cheetah mauls with less numbers. A massive proportion of Racing’s gained ground comes from maul scenarios like this so getting stuffed with lower numbers would act as a real spoiler for them mentally and tactically. That ability to use four men to stuff opposition mauls is a key part of Munster’s defensive system so Racing used narrow 8-man shoves to overwhelm it.

When Racing set up tight at the front, they had the numbers already in place to surge into a narrow point and overwhelm Munster’s counter-maul. When they tried to maul at the tail with smaller numbers, they generally got sacked.

The same goes for 6/7 man mauls set up anywhere else;

The key here is – will Racing go to the well on this again? They’ve got a slightly smaller team selected this time around – no Tameifuna or Maka to add the ballast they had in the U-Arena – so will they maul more, or go off the top? The likes of Le Roux and Eddy Ben Arous are no slouches in the mauling department, and they’re certainly more mobile than the other main mauling parts they used in Paris, but will they be as effective?

Personally, I think we’ll see a lot of maul feints from Racing after an initial feeling out process. Racing’s starting pack is missing the tight power that saw them surge onto Munster like this and while they’re certainly capable of busting stuff like the above out again, I think Racing have set up to go mobile in the heat of Bordeaux.

We’ll see how it goes.

Scrum Set-Up

Racing have added a few little bits off the scrum too; namely this kind of action with Lambie at 10.

This first one is similar to a lot of their scrum movements;

Lambie’s loop line is designed to isolate Chavancy on the #10, and they’ll use this to try and get a good matchup on Keatley in a bit of space.

This scheme uses the same principles of isolating the #10 by stealing away his inside shoulder support.

This scheme puts a lot of pressure on the #8’s pass – Machenaud is drawing the opposing #9 away to put Trinh-Duc under stress – and it really does a number on Toulon’s midfield defence. When Lambie gets the ball from Claasen, Trinh-Duc has a massive space to defend on either shoulder;

Lambie can attack Trinh-Duc’s inside or outside shoulder and that opens up the pass to Chavancy for a big break. They’ll try to use this at least once and it’ll be on O’Donoghue to fill the space on Keatley’s inside shoulder and for Murray to read Machenaud’s feint.

They’ve got another gimmick they like to run inside two or three phases of a scrum set and it’s basically aimed at stacking a shortside with runners and using Nakawara as a bridge.

The #10 is on the other side of the ruck so this can catch the unwary off guard. Nakawara’s ability to get the ball out of the tackle turns a 4-4 situation into something much more dangerous, especially when he combines with Vakatawa.

As I wrote in the Red Eye ahead of the U-Arena game, Munster can get at Racing in the scrum in general but especially so here with the front five set-up the Parisiens have started with.

Attacking

As far as attacking this Racing team are concerned, I’d be comfortable with some initial kicking on our possession – both in the box kick and down the middle of the pitch for Racing to exit off. Racing are vulnerable to getting their pods isolated on defensive lineouts and if Munster can generate a sequence of lineout possession through smart kicking and throwing accuracy, I think there’s a break in this Racing pack if exposed to a lot of movement in the line.

In open play defensive situations, Racing have a few issues that I feel Munster can exploit, especially in the aftermath of a maul or other natural “narrowing” event on the pitch like a restart. This isn’t just against Toulon, or ASM – this happens in almost every game they play.

Watch their movement off the ball on this defensive set and spot the gaps where you can see poor organisation;

There’s a lot of gaps here and off a fairly innocuous restart set-up.

These spaces show up every game if you can make Racing respect your forward presence in the maul or within three or four phases of a scrum set up. Why is this? Racing are extremely aggressive defenders, and that can lead their forwards to get drawn into forward exchanges that can leave spacing like this. It isn’t a fitness thing – especially with the pack they’ve picked – so this talk of playing high tempo rugby is only half the battle.

If we can combine good ruck tempo with width, Munster can force Racing to make decisions in defence and they have shown time and again this season that they are capable of over-folding. Look at the disrupted space here;

Now look at the speed of their reset two seconds later;

They’ve all folded around the corner without looking at the layout and cut off a front row in massive space. You’ve got six guys folding on the side with one Toulon attacker.

Check out how they fold from ruck to ruck;

They fold around the corner with the ball but they leave behind isolated forwards with each ruck as it passes. If Munster can encourage this kind of defensive work, the same space should show up and it can even be set up as a set play after three or four crab phases across the pitch. This one is screaming out for a “one-two” between Murray and someone like Wootton/Conway/Earls/Zebo/Arnold/O’Donoghue as Racing scramble across to seal the gap.

This isn’t a fitness issue – it’s an aggression issue. They’re almost too eager for those one on one contests and it can hurt them.

They also tend to leave a fair bit of space around Vakatawa on big openside plays off a lineout or left/right scrum because he’s such a powerful, mobile defender. That allows Chavancy to stay closer to Lambie but it gives a massive opportunity for a left sided kicker on right sided scrums to kick low in behind him.

That space also comes up when Racing are defending a midfield hit-up in the 10/12 channel that makes good ground.

Again – you can attack their tendency to over-fold. Nakawara and the rest of their backrow will usually swarm around the openside corner in any instance where they lose Chavancy if he’s been targeted on the initial carry.

The kick shows up again in these instances.

You can drag in Chavancy, Chat and another forward by stretching Lambie’s positioning on lineout.

If you can drag the tail gunner (usually Chat or Lauret) and Chavancy onto Lambie’s channel by threatening a carry like the above, you can cause Racing to overfold.

This isn’t even that dynamic a play but it does enough to draw in Racing and send tight forwards around the corner. If you can get them folding, you will tend to find space and that goes for double if you can design a play that stacks a lot of their forwards in midfield off a lineout.

All of these issues were massively visible in the games I saw of Racing. It was especially prevalent against Toulouse last week but with 13 changes from there to here, it’d be pointless to go into detail.

This game will be an immense challenge. Racing 92 are extremely good and they’ve picked a side that will look to attack Munster in a similar way to the way the Cheetahs did in the early going of last week’s game. They will attack Munster with the tempo we think we’ll use to hurt them and they may well be successful.

Munster’s kicking will be key. I think we can generate some good lineout possession from kicking down the middle to Dupichot and if we’re as accurate and inventive as we can be, I think we can attack Racing in the maul, up the 10 channel and on transition as their forwards move across the pitch in the aftermath.

It has the potential to be a special day if we learn the lessons of last year by managing our initial possession in this game better. We have to stay in this game emotionally and look to catch Racing when they drop late in each half.

Let’s do this.