Munster 30 Benetton 21

Job Done In Cork

This game was about grit, pride and refusing to lose. It took Munster forty minutes to work that out, but when they did they managed to overhaul a Benetton side who played like the rent was due.

Quality of Opponent

Match Importance

Performance

Attack

Defence

Set Piece

3.9

Finally.

You know it’s a big game in Musgrave Park when you’ve a queue of people stretching down to the Tramore Road traffic lights right before the gates open.

That is pretty rare.

It showed the stakes, though.

Peter O’Mahony’s last game in Cork. Munster badly needed a win against a dangerous opponent full of internationals, who were gasping for a win themselves. Season on the line stuff. One of those on their own would be enough for most people to get through a turnstile, but both? A blockbuster.

Munster could have sold a good few more than 8800 tickets for this, but that sense of scarcity added to the vibes. Anyone lucky enough to be among the 8,800 that got in through the gates was deeply aware of that luck, and they knew the job at hand, too.

So did the squad and coaches.

There was a palpable nervousness and tension around the place before kickoff because of this. I realised on the way home what it reminded me of when I saw a lad running with a heavy school bag towards Parnell Place; bus panic. When I was younger, that was the last bus from Cork to Bantry, and more times than I care to remember, I found myself looking at my watch and knowing that the bus leaves in ten minutes and I was nine minutes away. Run too early and I’d gas out, as well as looking like a gimp. Walk too casually and I’d be sure to miss it, and face a shit storm when I got home, most likely after having to call my dad for a two hour round trip in silence.

The fix was simple.

Don’t. Miss. The Bus.

That’s how the players and coaches looked before the game. The bus leaving the station right as they got to the Merchant’s Quay traffic lights by the bus station; no time for caring how you do it, just gotta get it.

It was an entirely appropriate feeling. Benetton were (are!) a good team, on a good run and full of Italian internationals in almost every single line of the team. Not only that, they have real size in the pack, a formidable offensive scrum and the kind of firepower in the outside backline – midfield in particular – that can shred you if you’re off on your detail on either side of the ball.

All of this was amplified by Benetton knowing well where their advantages lay relative to us; they were going to try to off-ball us, kick short to up the number of scrums and win the penalties there to power them up the field to execute in the 22 off close-range set-piece launches.

It almost worked.

***

Benetton’s physicality defined the first half in almost every facet of the game.

Their scrum was moving forward and generating penalties. We were trying to kick contestably to get Nash into the game with mixed results, while they were forcing Munster turnovers in possession and their midfield, in particular, was frightening the life out of us off their set-piece launches.

Here’s a good example of their impact off the set piece launch – a scrum penalty advantage turning into a break created by their midfield screen threat, and then a try created by almost exactly the same concept.

We were aware that Benetton use Brex and Menoncello to force compressions, only to then pass deep into the secondary to create options for their layered screen runners, which can be any one of their #10 or back three. We seemed to set up our defence to take away the tip-on option to Menoncello – a lethal move Benetton are well-versed in using – to back the speed of our wingers on the edge of that short pod to cut off the deep screen pass Brex uses as an alternate play.

On both occasions here, Brex’s passing was too accurate, and neither winger could stop the release play.

These are not individual reads as much as they are schemed defensive responses to known opposition threats. We tried a variant of the same defence for their second try ten minutes later, before something vital to the rest of the game happened.

First, it’s the same concept from Benetton here, but with a slightly different execution. The key is Brex taking the pass, Menoncello adding a very late pinch line at pace that Nankivell has to sit down for, and Casey targeting Umaga immediately from the scrum play, with no other intent except to hit him if he takes a screen ball.

Casey overruns the tackle, goes a little high and gets shrugged off, meaning Umaga can run through the gap that Farrell left to track Smyth. The break and try would follow.

It stayed 14-10 at the half, but crucially, Brex’s classic “carry without the ball” line on Crowley injured Jack’s ribs to the point that he couldn’t really do anything more than jog lightly and pass the ball at short range.

Immediately after, it was clear that something was wrong with Crowley. He stopped attacking with the ball in hand, he stopped running and could barely move the ball five metres on either side. Look at this as proof.

A perfectly executed screen loop opened up a possibility for Jack to attack the line that Farrell opened up with his tastefully executed scrag on Brex, but instead, Crowley dumped the ball off to Nash, and the chance for a 4v1 was gone.

I’ve watched Jack Crowley incredibly closely over the last three seasons, and this is the exact kind of tramline snipe he specialises in. So to see him not execute it the way he almost always does told me that he felt he couldn’t risk the contact.

Why? We had no specialist #10 on the bench, only Conor Murray, who played #10 at underage 17 years ago and the odd time in his storied career since as an emergency. He also knew we had a 6/2 bench and were losing 14-10 against a very good, very physical opponent, so he was very aware that if he went off after 30 minutes and Munster had an injury to Casey, for example, it would mean god only knows who playing #10 for god only knows how long in a can’t lose game that we were, at that time, losing.

So he stayed on. If the rib was broken he’d have had to come off, without question, but when it was just bruised or pulled, it’s possible – if you’re a complete sicko, that is – to power through it.

And that’s what he did.

***

In the second half, it was pretty clear immediately that the core members of this squad decided they were not going to be losing this game. It was too important. Munster also adjusted tactically to account for Jack Crowley no longer being able to carry the ball the way he normally would.

Just look at him grimacing when he kicked this penalty just a few metres into touch.

This is not a man having a good time out there.

So we would have to kick more, and not only that, kick further to avoid the risk of scrum penalties deciding the game. We had kicked short in the first half, and it brought more scrums with it than we’d have liked, even though we were rock solid on our own put-in.

On Benetton’s, however, we looked like giving away a penalty on almost every shove.

Four points down, time to get to work.

We won a penalty for a Benetton high tackle on what had been a pretty decent sequence around their 10m line. Benetton were quite exuberant with the late tackles and high enough follow-throughs all evening, which is fair enough – it’s a big game, after all – but you could tell elements of their defensive pressure were faltering slightly, even early in the second half.

A big maul from around the 22m line earned us another one and a shot from the 5m line. Barron landed a perfect flop throw to Beirne, and the maul powered over from there. Our second in two weeks – I could get used to that.

There’s a ton of fundamentals to like here. Milne and Kleyn are super solid on the touchline side. We got decent power through the infield side, too, with Nash assisting Barron for the finish. Our maul played a big part in this game and helped to drain some of the legs out of the Benetton pack, who were syncing all of their energy into defensive phase play.

It was just what the doctor ordered right after halftime, when we couldn’t afford Benetton spending too long in the lead. A few moments later, we landed one of the best set-piece tries of our season so far.

Jack Crowley played a little bit deeper off Nankivell – something to revisit in the playoffs – and found Kilgallen with an inch-perfect crossfield kick that the big winger was able to field without breaking stride before offloading inside to Abrahams for the finish.

With that cushion, it became about conserving energy and playing smart against a team who were still in the throes of off-balling us. With a #10 who couldn’t take contact, we had to box clever. Casey’s passing had to be perfect, and it was. His kicking needed to be perfect, and it was. We needed someone to be an outlet for us, and Calvin Nash delivered one of the best aerial performances you’re likely to see this season.

From there, it was about nerve. Finding it and holding it.

Benetton pulled it back to a four-point differential with ten minutes to go after a speculative hoik of the ball upfield by Fekitoa had to be kicked out in our 22 by a badly flagging Crowley under pressure from Umaga.

From there, Munster conceded a maul penalty, and then a maul try from 5m. Benetton weren’t going away.

But neither were Munster.

A bit of luck helped us to the 5m line. The officials spotted an obvious offside from a Benetton exit, which counts as a bit of luck these days because those are not always seen, let alone called.

Josh Wycherley powered over from close range after another excellent maul, and that was that. Game over. Job done. It seemed so straightforward in hindsight; it was anything but. Benetton showed up as expected. They were desperate for a win to save their season, with the size and impact to do it, and were a few moments away from doing just that. This game was 10-14 at halftime, and honestly, could have been anything in the second half with a clearly injured fly-half. The pressure was tightening.

But that’s when you see the measure of guys. I said before the game that, while Benetton were good, you could cod yourself into making them better than they are because of the stakes involved. Impose ourselves and we’d win. Benetton imposed their game in the first half and won that. We did in the second half, won that, and the game with it.

In the second half, Munster adjusted our approach, kicked more to depower Benetton’s defensive game and backed the maul to play with simplicity. Scores followed, but the most pleasing thing was how the team took responsibility for the moment. Challenge Cup rugby isn’t just a downgrade in status, it costs money, money that could see a few staff let go to make the numbers add up next year. The players’ jobs weren’t on the line – a contract is a contract – but it’s far from an exaggeration to suggest that a year without the financial draw of the Champions Cup would have been disastrous.

The players fought for the club in that second half, for the people in Munster gear you don’t see, and they did the job when it counted. Guys like Casey and Crowley put the team on their backs. O’Mahony snarled and dogged his way to a performance that reminded me of him five years ago. It’s what you want from a team: personality. Character. A bit of dog when things aren’t going perfectly.

The full-time whistle brought real, palpable relief. Two weeks ago, we needed ten points against two teams fighting for their lives in successive weeks. Two weeks later, we’d managed just that with a bit to spare at the end.

A trip to Durban beckons, and if Munster are to win this URC title this season, it’ll be done in South Africa and then god only knows where.

One thing we do know is that whatever happens, we’ll have to do it the Hard Way and when the Kings of the Hard Way get on a roll, god help any Shark, any Bull, anyone at all that gets in their way.