There are two games happening here.
The first game is the technical one. I’ll get to that later, as you might expect. Lots to cover.
The second game is the emotional one. The spiritual one. The soul war. Rob Baxter spoke about it last week in the aftermath of beating Castres with a bonus point in Sandy Park. “We have to decide that we are going to go there and stand up and not back down, physically or emotionally,” said Baxter. “And that will give us our best chance.”
What Baxter is talking about here is “spirit” or “mana”. It’s a hard thing for a guy who writes about Munster professionally to talk about without lads piping up with derisory snorts about “pride and pashun” but getting your emotional energy right heading onto the field is one of the most important things in the game, even at professional level. Actually, it might even be more important at pro-level. You can have all your technical basics and gameplan down to a tee but if you’re not ready to live and die for that jersey and your 22 friends when you walk past that white line, you’ll usually lose to a team that is.
If you don’t know what it’s like, it can be hard to understand that mentality. To some, it can sound cartoonish, or of a bygone time. I can promise you that it isn’t. Sure, pre-match isn’t 100% tubthumping anymore but in the modern game, the need for emotional readiness is a key part of the game. The very best sides in the world peak technically, mentally, physically and emotionally ahead of big games, almost on command, and anyone wanting to be spoken about in the same circles has to be able to do the same. It’s not enough to have three of the four. It has to be all of them.
On the biggest and best nights in Thomond Park, Munster have all four in spades.
Matching that Munster’s mana in Thomond Park is something that is much easier said than done, as many teams – particularly English teams – have found over the years. Saying it isn’t the same as doing it. However, if I was to pick any English side that could do it in 2019 it would probably be the Exeter Chiefs. The challenge for them will be to keep the ghosts out of their head. Teams lose in Thomond Park when they break, first in ones and twos and then collectively. All week, Exeter’s leaders will have been talking about the need to quieten the crowd, and stand up to Munster but the first time one of those leaders takes a backwards step or cows away from a confrontation – any confrontation – then it’ll spread through the rest like wildfire. If they can keep the ghosts away, they have a chance. If they let the poltergeists in under the high ball or chasing a bouncing ball back towards their try line, they’ll sink without a trace. That’s the challenge for Exeter and, indeed, the challenge for Munster. A house of horror only works when everything inside is scary, after all.
This is looking like it good be a good one.
The Red Eye Report: Exeter (H)
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 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 – B
Defensive Scrummaging – B
Attacking Lineout – B
Defensive Lineout – B
Offensive Maul – A
Defensive Maul – B
Open Play
Defensive Structure – A
Phase Play Power – B
Attacking Creativity – B
Structured Attack Off Set Piece – B
Structured Defence Off Set Piece – B
Overall Fitness – B
Kicking – C
Back Three Kick Positioning – B
Pain Threshold
I wrote at the very end of the Red Eye for the game in Sandy Park that “I have a funny feeling that we’re a bad matchup for Exeter style-wise”. It’s fair to say that didn’t pan out like that. The wind – and Munster’s lack of attacking fluency on the day – had the major say in that but I still think that the game we brought to Gloucester is one that can really hurt Exeter. I’d recommend going back over that Red Eye again, actually, because little about Exeter’s game has changed in the interim.
From an attacking perspective, much of Exeter’s work with the ball in hand comes in tight waves. Not always – they have a few release plays they like to go with that get Nowell and Cordero onto the ball – but when Exeter are expecting a tight game, they generally will keep their attacking patterns just as tight.
Everything was affected by the wind in Sandy Park but you’d often see Exeter in this kind of shape.
They’d be happy enough to lose 4/5 players to an attacking ruck just to ensure that the ball is retained and protected from a counter-ruck. If that means playing a tight channel one ball that does nothing much on the next phase, then so be it. Phases after the one I’ve highlighted above will be prime for the likes of Beirne and Stander to work their usual double team magic on over the ball.
With Garces on the whistle, we’ll get a fair bit of wiggle room to attack their breakdown. When we did that in Sandy Park, it looked a fair bit like this phase for phase;
This is a fairly standard Exeter phase play off a lineout in that position. We defended it quite well actually but you’ll see the way they approached their work here. Simple passes, one out runners and good run ups on their clean outs.
There were three points that Munster would have looked at to possibly attack Exeter’s possession on this phase. The first was in the lineout – I’ll get to that in Blood & Thunder – and the other two were at the breakdown after the lineout.
In one way, Scannell was the “wrong” guy to have in this spot because he isn’t a natural breakdown threat but Cloete was in more of a hitting role off this lineout and was just off the ruck point.
Those same kinds of opportunities will be there because Exeter don’t really cluster their rucks until the 4th or 5th phase. If you can smuggle the ball away from them when they start throwing two-plus men into the breakdown, they’re really vulnerable on transition because of the size of their pack.
The kick here wasn’t a bad option but I’d have liked to see a Chris Farrell power through the contact to set up a ruck so we could attack all the floored Chiefs on the next phase.
Another place to catch Exeter is on their release phases.
Any side that uses tight channel possession and closely stacked rucks on attacking sequences needs to “reload the pitch” every fourth or fifth phase. That’s a phase count that Exeter see regularly enough so you’ll see it from them quite a bit. Essentially, if you burn through three or four phases crossing across the field, you need to release the ball into a wide area that’s disconnected from the previous ruck by a fair distance.
That gives your heavy runners up the middle of the field a chance to recover and, once you recover the ball, you’ve got a full roster of carrying pods to attack with again. Release phases are the place to really mess with Exeter’s possession chain.
The Chiefs hit Devoto and Nowell off this centre-field ruck and, once they had possession, both men drove straight to the touchline to elongate the distance between ruck points.
Just like an openside, eh Eddie?Look at the way that Nowell pre-bound the ruck by latching onto Devoto. He’s never looking for an offload or a pass – it’s just about securing the release phase. You’ll see them try this in this game too but will they use O’Flaherty and Cordero instead of Nowell? Nowell’s playing at full back remember, so if they are keeping Nowell as a strike runner up the middle of the field on some second layer plays, then the opportunity to counter-attack this ruck position is huge – Earls is a specialist at this. He’d be no call to his ‘ould fella if he wasn’t.
Here’s another example of an Exeter release phase against Gloucester in Kingsholm. Watch the way they reset on the openside after they retain possession on the release.
Here’s one against Gloucester in Sandy Park that they were lucky enough to hang onto as the carrier got caught turning on the wrong side on the floor.
Munster’s counter-ruck on these phases will be crucial – Farrell and Earls in particular.
Transition Ball & Second Layer
When they have transition ball to work with, Exeter are more likely to be expansive in their phase plays. Look at their work off this kick return;
An offload to Nowell, a jinking run, a tip on pass and then a full-on push into the second layer. You can see Goggin overcommit on Steenson – he fancied he’d beat him for pace and was almost right – but that put Exeter at an angle where they could offload. Only the ridiculous wind strength kept this out of Cordero’s hands for a one on one with Haley.
Exeter’s work in the second layer is usually quite deep behind the gainline to preserve attackable space for their pacey back three to attack. Ideally, they’ll want Henry Slade on the ball with the likes of Devoto as an inside option with Nowell and Cordero attacking on the outside. They’ll be looking to go after Farrell laterally in much the same way that Connacht did with Tom Farrell so watch for that. Munster will have to be careful not to bite into the second layer in a similar way to the defensive performance in Gloucester because that kind of “corner” is exactly what Slade and Devoto are looking to offload around. If we’re shooting, it’ll have to be a rock solid read.
Sequence
We have to avoid getting into Exeter’s preferred sequence – phase play, penalty, lineout maul, close range phase play. Scrum discipline and offside must be spotless. Exeter will kick a fair bit and are quite good at winning breakdown turnovers of inaccurate run-backs. Once Exeter get into your 22 they are extremely good at wearing down opposing defences and winning chained penalties. They convert an awful lot of these positions. We have to avoid those situations at all costs.
I expect the Chiefs to be fired up, at least initially, and will look to hang onto the ball for long periods in the opening 10 minutes to take the crowd out of the game. They won’t necessarily have to go anywhere with the possession, but they’ll want to spread unease and maybe win an impatient penalty from Munster. Retaining possession and pressuring their kick return will be key in those opening minutes.
It’ll be tight, it’ll be tough but it should be enthralling.
