I still believe in Munster Rugby. I will always believe in Munster Rugby.
In the days since Black Saturday, when Munster were shamed and embarrassed at home in Thomond Park by a Leinster side that were so dismissive of the challenge we posed to them that Jack Dunne, the man who started in the second row alongside Devin Toner, is playing AIL this week instead of travelling to Galway with Leinster as a travelling reserve… things have been difficult here.
That defeat against Leinster was so comprehensive that, for me, it rocked a lot of the theories I had been compiling all season long. The desolation I felt – and desolation is the right word – came from the idea that, in part, I was wrong about this Munster side. When they were getting laughed at, sneered at and clowned on by everyone from Donal Lenihan to Bernard Jackman to Keith Wood in January, I defended them. Our wins over a very good Castres side – who have since gone on to beat Toulouse, Montpellier and should have beaten Harlequins in the Stoop – were the evidence I needed that there were levels in this Munster side and, despite being without key power and elite quality components like Snyman and Jenkins for most of the season, that we were undervalued and an active threat in the business end of the season. Not that I was predicting that we’d storm to a Double but that we’d make the quarter-finals of Europe at least, a semi-final depending on the draw, that a repeat of making the URC final that we reached last season and making an improved performance was at least plausible.
I still think that, to an extent, but the limp performance for the first 60 minutes against Leinster and the lack of fight shown – literally and metaphorically – by key senior players just let me down. This isn’t just optics. I pored back through that game for days. Multiple runs. I wasn’t looking to be mad, I was looking for HOPE. I found it in Fineen Wycherley, Craig Casey, Alex Kendellen, Shane Daly and Josh Wycherley. I found more hope when I realised that Jean Kleyn – our most important forward – would be back next week so, even in the absence of Snyman, Kilcoyne, Beirne and Coombes, we would have a guy who doesn’t take backward steps back in the saddle.
That reads as being unnecessarily down on guys like O’Mahony, Murray, Carbery, Scannell, Loughman and Archer but it doesn’t mean to be. They’re all good players, they’re all good guys, most of them have given more for Munster Rugby than I ever have or will. They had a bad day at the office against Leinster. Not for the first time, probably not even for the last time either, but that happens in this sport against a superior opponent, which Leinster are right now.
The key is how you recover. This week is the first step in that process. Saturday was not the end of the season but it can be the beginning of something with the right approach both on-field and in selection meetings going forward. Our opponents this weekend, Exeter Chief, are as good a team as any to start that beginning, if that’s what it is to be. Only problem is Exeter are more than good enough to make it an ending of things too.
The Chiefs are a dangerous opponent with a history of recent success that we can only dream of but that hasn’t been reflected in their general performances this season. Their European campaign was disrupted by covid – the same as almost everyone else, in that regard- but it featured the same up and down performance levels that were present in their domestic form. They blew Montpellier away in Sandy Park during the opening weekend, then they lost to Glasgow in Scotstoun, then they beat the same Glasgow side out the gate at home, then they lost away to Montpellier.
Domestically, they’ve been let down by their form in Sandy Park, oddly enough, where they’ve only won half of their games. That shouldn’t be taken as an omen for Munster, though, as Exeter have been
Exeter Chiefs: 15. Stuart Hogg, 14. Olly Woodburn, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Ian Whitten, 11. Tom O’Flaherty, 10. Joe Simmonds, 9. Sam Maunder; 1. Alex Hepburn, 2. Jack Yeandle (c), 3. Harry Williams, 4. Jonny Gray, 5. Sam Skinner, 6. Dave Ewers, 7. Jacques Vermeulen, 8. Sam Simmonds
Replacements: 16. Jack Innard, 17. Ben Moon, 18. Patrick Shickerling, 19. Jannes Kirsten, 20. Richard Capstick, 21. Jack Maunder, 22. Harvey Skinner, 23. Josh Hodge
The interesting thing about teams who exist under a salary cap is that you tell where they are concentrating their resources and what that says about their game as a result.
For Exeter, they appear to have loaded up completely in their pack, added a test quality strike playmaker at fullback and let other areas like halfback, midfield – to an extent – and the wings to be filled by home-grown, veteran or value options. I’ve often said that power is expensive and even though Exeter are feeling the pinch next year when Skinner and Hill leave, they’ve been sensible with the guys they’ve brought in to complement Sam Simmonds.
If you were Rob Baxter you could be forgiven for looking to sign a few power forwards to add to the size Exeter have in the front five but no – he decided to pack his side with Half Locks and used that four lock pack build to construct a side that won a Champions Cup and Gallagher Premiership double with a massive lineout, dominant maul and a pack that could grind through almost any team from inside 10 metres.
The change around pre-binds hurt Exeter, certainly, as did a move to expand too much of their attack and transition game without elite halfbacks but they have tightened their game back up in the last few months and have been mostly all the better for it.
That Four Lock Pack build has a tonne of advantages – lineout contesting, multiple lineout options all through the line, maul attack, maul defence, a lot of weight and power in the scrum, excellent tight ball retention and close in defence – but it comes with a downside too. Your small forward core have to work really hard to cover the spaces left by what is, essentially, a tight six. That usually falls to Sam Simmonds and Luke Cowan Dickie but, with Cowan Dickie injured, Jack Yeandle slots into that role and while he’s a very good player, he’s not a great fit with that role. His defensive range is limited and, in this game, it will force Sam Simmonds to make more radical choices on his defensive coverage especially on kick transition and on the phases directly after kick transition.
If Munster can force Exeter to go into their medium or long-range kicking game, there are opportunities there to hurt the Chiefs by unbalancing their middle line of defence after a chase and never allowing them to recover their equilibrium. They concede a lot of tries from this principle.
Look at how often you see Gray, Skinner and Vermuelen covering more than twice their arm span in space around a flow ruck or the number of times Shickering – who’s on the bench but Williams, who starts, is even heavier and less mobile laterally – is left guarding the space inside Joe Simmonds. Accurate, quick and long range passing can really hurt this Exeter side, especially on the flank that Whitten ends up defending.
That is all active space that Munster can attack in the multi-phase possessions after a kick transition. The key will be kicking on our terms to such a degree that we can force these long returns from Maunder, Simmonds, Slade and Hogg without conceding a 50/22 and establishing our lineout enough that the Chiefs want to keep the ball on the field.
It’s all there for us if we have the game to go for it.
