RUGBY:FOR MUCH of the time, the Heineken Cup can re-visit dog-eared scripts. But this is a new one, straight off the printing presses, with each team, even those ultimate Euro warriors from Munster, entering new territory in the latest of their win-or-bust chapters.
The Stade Mayol is one of the few rugby grounds in France, like Bayonne, which is based in the very heart of the city, and there will be a whiff of cordite in the air of this port city and French naval base on the Cote d’Azur. One former Connacht player told me of playing there one day, and when a fight broke out involving some of the replacements, some of the fans were clambering to join in.
Their highly voluble club president, Mourad Boudjellal, may have his tongue in his cheek, and may not especially represent the mood of the dressingroom or be remotely accurate when he complains of Munster’s lack of respect for Toulon in the first meeting. Even so, Toulon do have the memory of that thrashing and, significantly, show nine changes from the starting team in Thomond Park.
Aside from their smattering of English players, Juan Martin Fernandez-Lobbe, who missed that game, returns alongside his fellow Puma Felipe Contepomi, and the pair have had plenty of run-ins with the likes of Ronan O’Gara, Paul O’Connell and Denis Leamy over the years.
This may or may not mean that, not for the first time in an otherwise limited gameplan, Contepomi feels compelled to make things happen out of nothing, which, given his often charged relationship with Munster, could be no bad thing.
In any event, brilliant though Dr Phil is, he’s no Sonny Bill Williams.
But that could also give Toulon the best of both worlds, as they are generally reckoned to be operating at full strength when they accommodate Contepomi and Jonny Wilkinson.
Up front, there may be no Carl Hayman, but again the combination of Laurent Emmanuelli, Sebastien Bruno and Georgian tighthead Davit Kubriashvili (neither of the last two played in Thomond) is still reckoned to be their best scrummaging frontrow.
And the scrum is the biggest caveat when stating the case for a Munster win, especially when factored in with the presence of Dave Pearson as referee and Wilkinson.
The latter doesn’t definitively shape matches the way Contepomi can; he plays too deep in the pocket and kicks too much. But if the Toulon scrum starts earning penalties within range, and Wilkinson starts bisecting the posts with the three-pointers or with any of his frequent drop goal attempts off either foot, then it will have a potentially seismic feel-good effect on team-mates and 13,500 capacity crowd alike.
They’ll be noisy, for sure, and as ever the extent to which the anticipated Red Army invasion of near 2,000 can be heard will be a barometer of Munster’s well-being. That, or derisory whistling from the home crowd as they seek to pressure Pearson, could be just as sweet.
For that to happen, Munster will have to retain their discipline and shape in defence, with O’Gara shaping the match through his kicking for the corners and distribution. They’ll have to score tries when the time comes, but on the evidence so far, in the speed of Keith Earls, the timing of Paul Warwick’s entry into the lines and Doug Howlett’s finishing, Munster have more to offer out wide, and generally have more skills and ambition with the ball.
As a former Munster player admits, you could make an argument for more Toulon players in a composite team. Toulon are certainly the more expensively assembled group of individuals. But therein lies the rub. Munster remain the ultimate in a team ethos, and they also have the experience of countless quasi Cup ties like this.
That applies even more so with the reinstatement of O’Connell and Peter Stringer. O’Connell will have brought leadership, focus and unwavering honesty all week. His return, behind John Hayes, may even help steady the scrum, for if Munster’s scrum is solid, they have every chance.
Stringer, too, is presumably there as much for his leadership and his on-field communication skills as for his rapid-fire service.
They may never have been to Toulon, but they’ve been to plenty of places like it, and they’ve bought the T-shirt. In the likes of O’Connell, Stringer, O’Gara and many others, they’ve shown, unlike Toulon, they can make the right decisions, the right plays at the key moments.
And it’s that indefinable Munster X-factor on occasions like this which makes you think they can confound the bookies and the doubters once more.
And this simply matters so much to them.
TOULON: R Wulf; P Sackey, G Lovobalavu, F Contepomi, C Loamanu; J Wilkinson, P Mignoni; L Emmanuelli, S Bruno, D Kubriashvili, C Samson, D Schofield, J Fernandez Lobbe, G Smith, J van Niekerk (capt). Replacements: J Orioli, S Taumoepeau, M Merabet, J El Abd, F Auelua, R Lamont, L Magnaval, K Chesney.
MUNSTER: P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, S Tuitupou, J Murphy; R O’Gara, P Stringer; W du Preez, D Varley, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, J Coughlan, D Wallace, D Leamy (capt). Replacements: M Sherry, D Hurley, T Buckley, M O’Driscoll, D Ryan, N Ronan, T O’Leary, L Mafi.
Referee: Dave Pearson (England).
Results so far: Toulon: 19-14 Ospreys (h); 18-45 Munster (a); 19-13 London Irish (a); 38-17 London Irish (h). Munster: 17-23 London Irish (a); 45-18 Toulon (h); 22-16 Ospreys (h); 15-19 Ospreys (a).
Leading try scorers: Toulon: nine players on one each. Munster: Doug Howlett 3.
Leading points scorers: Toulon: Jonny Wilkinson 31, Felipe Contepomi 23. Munster: Ronan O’Gara 39.
Betting: 4/9 Toulon, 17/10 Munster. Forecast: Munster to win.
