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Munster 18 Ulster 13

A reaction and result when it was needed most

It was far from perfect but the gritty, never-say-die ending to this game was the perfect tonic after last week. Munster needed a win and a semblance of a performance and got it.

Match Importance

Match Quality

Intensity

Standard of Opposition

Grit, determination and composure

Young players to the fore

Slow start undermines pregame intent

Power still an issue from close range

4.1

Last weekend I wrote the following in the aftermath of Munster’s dour loss in the Sportsground.

“We need to bounce back, and soon, or the season could badly spin out of control.” 

When you talk about spinning out of control in a Munster context, we actually have a good marker for what that looks like. Back in 2015/16, Munster had a season that veered from bad to worse to worse than worse during a middle block spell that cost people their contracts at this club and ended in the restructuring that saw Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber brought in.

We started that season well enough. We had been defeated PRO12 finalists the year before so the expectation was relatively good for the season, even though it was our first without Paul O’Connell (who moved to Toulon before injury retired him) and without O’Mahony, who had been injured at that year’s World Cup.

At the start of the year during the World Cup, Munster went on a seven-win, one loss sequence straight out the gate and, while things were a little wobbly performance-wise it augered fairly well. Not too bad. Results were there even if performances were a bit up and down.

From the 28th of November to the 27th of December, we lost five games in a row. We lost to Connacht in Thomond Park for the first time in decades, we lost to Dragons in Newport, we were soundly beaten by Leicester Tigers in Thomond Park in a game that became infamous for fans jeering the substitution of Ian Keatley in the second half, we lost the return game a week later in Welford Road before topping off the year losing at home to Leinster, who were on a dire enough run themselves at the time.

We won against Ulster in Ravenhill a week later to stem the flow of losses but fell to a dire defeat against a 14 man Stade Francais team a week later in Paris. Munster were out of Europe and floundering in the PRO12 to the point where, even then, we were in trouble for Champions Cup qualification. A win over Stade Francais a week later to end the campaign on something of a high was scant consolation, as were two facile wins over Zebre and Benetton to end the month.

Two bad losses in February to the Ospreys and Glasgow meant the end of the season was more about qualifying for Europe than pushing for the playoffs as we started to run out of games to make a meaningful run. We lost to Connacht and Leinster in April before pulling qualification out of the fire with wins over Edinburgh and Scarlets in Cork and Limerick to save the season.

Sorry for the history lesson but that’s the kind of situation we’ve experienced in the not so distant past. No team of Munster’s stature wants to end the season like that but it doesn’t just happen, it slides there over time with each loss making the next game even harder.

That season, on-field and off, got out of control.

In 2022, things are different. As of the time of writing, Munster look like they’ll qualify for the European knockouts – touch wood – and sit on 24 points, two points of the top four of the main log with two games in hand whole sitting third in the Irish Shield in the United Rugby Championship. It doesn’t feel that way though, rightly or wrongly.

Had last week’s defeat against Connacht been followed up with another loss here, you’re getting to the point where like in 2015/16, bad results start compounding on themselves and before you know it, you’re fighting for your life scrambling for a knife in the mud with massive, incredibly difficult games to come just to make sure of European qualification. Had Munster lost last night, we’d currently be sitting in 8th with every team below us having multiple games in hand on us but, more importantly than that, the vibes would be beyond septic. So bad that there would be the real possibility of blood on the dancefloor before long.

You can lose in a bad performance and it doesn’t need to define you. What defines you as a team is what you do the next week. Can you respond? Can you take the lesson and apply it to the next week in a practical way? If you can’t, it feels like the opposite of a rebound – a kick in the stones.

This win against Ulster was the biggest, most important win of the season to date for that reason alone.

When Simon Zebo got red-carded in the 14th minute of this game – Ulster were 7-0 up at the time thanks to an early close-range maul – this had the look of a long night at the office. We had been struggling for momentum and clarity up right up to the red card. Silly penalties combined with lost defensive collisions and handling errors in the tough weather conditions undermined our attempts to start well while Ulster snapped into their heavy game off #9 early and often.

Against Leinster, Ulster really managed to squeeze off large sections of the game with their close ball retention off #9. They did the same here in the first half to good effect. It suited the conditions, matched up well with us as a defensive unit and married well with Mike Adamson’s “offence first” interpretation at the breakdown. This sequence of attack leading is really worth watching in full to get an idea of how Ulster approached this part of the game.

Not much risk, but the game didn’t call for it. When Ulster had the advantage after Kilcoyne got trapped underneath the ruck, they got width on the ball to have a pop but that penalty was what they were working towards. If you lose tight collisions against this Ulster side they are very good at trapping you in the rubble, so to speak. They scored a try from the resulting penalty position.

As I spoke about pre-game, we needed to squeeze the breakdown enough to make Ulster kick more – something of a weakness for them from a decision making and execution POV – and we certainly went after it. Coombes, Beirne, Hodnett and others made some good ruck entries but Adamson’s interpretation at the breakdown made it difficult for the defending team to win all but the most obvious of jackal penalties. It would have been a schematic aim for Munster to pull Ulster off their best structure and force them to kick more.

Ironically, it was Simon Zebo’s red card that did the trick.

When Zebo got sent off – rightly so, I’d say, even with the dip from Lowry on landing – it badly unbalanced the Munster backfield. Munster’s backfield defence works on a pendulum style system that sees a rotation of the back three and sometimes the #10 into the different defensive zones of the backfield depending on the position of the ball and the flow of possession.

This is a good example of how it works – with the #9 showing the short-range cover behind the primary defensive line.

#11 steps up into the primary line to cover the edge, #15 slides into the backfield zone behind the winger to cover the kick, with the opposite winger moving to a more central position in line with the other movement.

When you are down a winger, it makes running a full “pendulum” quite difficult. Ulster were well aware of this so, with the conditions being difficult, they started to kick way more. When it worked, it looked like this;

That’s exactly what you’d expect to see against a side down a winger for any extended period of time and the outcome – another close-range lineout – was exactly what you’d want in the conditions. I think that early success drew Ulster into kicking a little more than was probably optimal.

Even then, that kick heavy change of tack would probably have worked much better if not for the ball hoovering ability of the outstanding Mike Haley as he, essentially, covered two backfield zones on his own.

If it seems like Ulster are kicking at Haley it’s more to do with Haley’s positional excellence than Ulster making kicking errors. Haley’s cheat code backfield management played a large part in Ulster failing to take full advantage of Zebo’s red card and prevented Ulster from building the scoreboard.

♛♛♛

Munster’s work with the ball in hand would come under intense scrutiny in this game one way or the other.

Against Connacht, we didn’t fire a shot to land one so whatever happened against Ulster, that would have to change. In the early going, we struggled to get any kind of purchase on the ball. Conditions at kickoff meant whoever got the first real purchase on territory would be the first side to engage their attacking game with any real impact. Two penalties inside the first four minutes gave that territory to Ulster and they duly scored from that opportunity. Munster didn’t get a proper opportunity to launch an attack until the 10th minute, when Niall Scannell and Craig Casey spotted an opportunity to have a pop down the tram off a lineout.

Good idea, good execution by Casey, Scannell has to do better, sure, but the idea was solid. Our next real opportunity came after the red card and we transitioned into the Ruck Point Attack that was so successful earlier in the season. If you’re not paying attention, this can look like “one out” carrying. It’s anything but.

We know the principles of Ruck Point Attack from earlier in the season. The scrumhalf engages the pillars of the defence with a lateral carry to move them out of their set positions. The churn runner takes a hard inside option line that we can hit with the pass to mix it up but they mainly look to scrag and slow the progression and line speed of the A & B defenders.

If the space opens up, the scrumhalf can snipe through the gap but you have two tight carriers running inside loop lines that are the primary option.

When you hit the outside loop runner, they have the inside pass as an option or a feint, a carry themselves or a pass out to the edge space churned by the pinch-runner. When you hit the inside runner, they will often have a gap to aim for as the A/B/C defensive system gets overloaded.

We run this kind of scheme in the aftermath of a lineout or maul break and it was consistently effective here. To the untrained eye, it looks accidental or “off the cuff” but this is drilled, planned multi-phase attack that produced consistent gain-line wins.

There was a clear method to this approach and our work in general phase play was generally good too – good pop in the carry, good pace on the delivery and constant activity. Our work on transition was much improved too compared to last week – some improvements needed on the handling and snatching at opportunities – but the intent was better. Crowley had a few errors with the ball in hand but I loved his intent on this play because he knows that if he can beat Vermeulen on the step, he’d only have Cooney to beat in the backfield with Hodnett outside him for support. He got scragged, sure, and knocked the ball on but he’s looking to hurt Ulster – we need that intent.

When it came to finally striking for the win, we had the pace and variety to cause Ulster real problems despite being down to 14 men. We were winning collisions, we were playing with pace and tempo and we were finding key passes at the right time.

That’s a try worthy of winning any game. Sure, Munster were far from perfect but I don’t think our approach can be dismissed here as just “fire and fury”. Against Scarlets earlier this season, we had a Pass Per Carry rating of 1.09. We weren’t too far off that here with a 0.94 PPC rating on a night infinitely worse than the brisk Autumn sun in Llanelli. This past week was the first full training week that Munster had with two games in between – no surprise then that our fluidity was better, our ability to run phases together was improved and we were more efficient in general.

It was far from perfect, sure, but if we’re going to criticise Munster for last week we have to also recognise the key improvements here against a strong opponent while down to 14 men for the majority of the game after losing the captain in the warmup. To not recognise that isn’t analysis at all, it’s churlishness dressed up as “straight-shooting”. It’s empty calories.

A key question is whether Munster can continue this strong finish for the next few weeks to fully flush the “reactive” rugby of the last two games out of their system. We have a long way to go to pull the season back into focus but this weekend was a good start when they needed it most when the pressure was as high as it’s been for many seasons.

Will it stand to them? We’ll know a lot more next week but for a week on week improvement, this was all we could ask for in the circumstances. This was as close to the performance in Llanelli as we’ve had since that game – let’s build on it.

TOP PERFORMERS

Craig Casey returned to close to his best in this game with a display brimming with aggression – not just defensively but in his line running and how he challenged defenders. His work around the breakdown was fast, accurate and consistently challenged Ulster’s pillar defenders. He was unlucky not to create two serious linebreaks all on his own and his pass for Mike Haley’s try was inch-perfect. Good stuff.

Thomas Ahern is the Slim Reaper of rugby and one of the highest potential young players that I’ve seen in years. He carried strongly, he was a nightmare for Ulster on restarts and he attacked their throwing lanes like King Kong swatting at fighter jets.

This kind of talent only comes around every so often. It’s vital we make sure to bring him through the right way because if he works out – physically, emotionally and mentally – there’s nowhere in this game Ahern can’t get to.

Mike Haley scored a try – a pretty important one – made one poor kick on a transition but, for me, his near faultless display of backfield management and high fielding on a day made for greasy spills was a game-winner for Munster. Outstanding stuff from a player who needed a response after last week and provided one. ★★★★★

Gavin Coombes carried 27 times in this game and made 11 tackles. Stats aren’t half the story of a game but they tell a tale here of a young man who wasn’t about to lose this game easily. He wins collisions on both sides of the ball and he’s a willing, dangerous carrier who’s coming into his own as a vital, first name on the teamsheet guy for Munster Rugby. A high-quality display of his power forward credentials. ★★★★★

This game was another entry into the “John Hodnett Is Going To Be Something Very Special” scrapbook that you all should be keeping up to date. His defence was impactful, his ball carrying was explosive and his coverage of the field on both sides of the ball was outstanding. He plays very big out there and he’s still developing athletically. If he continues on this track, he’ll be capped by the end of the year. ★★★★★

Tadhg Beirne has a good argument to be the best back five player in Europe at the moment. He can do it all on both sides of the ball, as a lock, as a back row, he even covered the defensive wing space with the ease of a midfielder.

I don’t think we win this game without him. This turnover to win the game couldn’t have been more fitting.

It was Tadhg Beirne just flat out refusing to lose. He was not having it. This performance was the kind of elite of the elite stuff you get from true world-class players. That’s what Tadhg Beirne is – one of the best in the world. His captaincy was easy, smart and amiable to the point where he earned Munster penalties off the back of his conversations with Mike Adamson.

His breakdown work was, once again, of the highest possible standard.

With a guy like Beirne in your pack, no game is ever really “gone” because he can always find a way to get you back into it. That’s how good he is and how good he was here. On the third watch back, I was just taken aback by how good this guy was here. Just outstanding involvements over and over again. Amazing, modern-great stuff from a top-class, game-winning operator. ★★★★★

The Wally Ratings: Ulster (H)

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.