It’s one thing observing it, especially from the outside, but it’s quite another experiencing it first-hand. With ticket sales having topped 75,000, next Saturday’s renewal of the Leinster-Munster story at Croke Park (kick-off 5.45pm) cements its status as, simply, the biggest rugby rivalry in the world below Test level.
“Certainly,” said Graham Rowntree, in readily agreeing to such a billing. “For a club game that’s not a playoff game ... 75,000!” Now in his sixth season with Munster as assistant or head coach, and facing into his 14th interpro derby against Leinster, he also admitted: “No, I never realised. You don’t get it until you’re in it.”
He recalled a conversation with his one-time boss and friend on the English coaching ticket.
“I always remember speaking to Stuart Lancaster. He came over here before I did and he was telling me about how he navigates moving over and back, and all the travelling.
“After I joined Munster and he was with Leinster, he said: ‘You realise we can never speak again’.
Leinster vs Munster- the history of a bitter rivalry
“I said: ‘What do you mean?’ But I get it now. There’s an intense rivalry there and a very respectful rivalry. They are a great team, a great team; achieved good things.”
“It’s not bad for a club game, that, is it?” said Rowntree in reference to the ticket sales. “Tingles in my spine when you say that, and we certainly spoke about it today, the history around this stadium and this fixture. You’ve got to be calm as well, and they’re a bloody good team. They took some analysing, and we’ve had a good look at them.
As much as their undoubted flair and potency, Rowntree highlighted Leinster’s work ethic.
“Everyone has spoken about their defence, particularly with Jacques [Nienaber] coming; their speed off the line, they work hard, they scrum well, they make life difficult for you around the breakdown. They’ve got some great launch plays off lineout and breaking out of mauls, so you can’t give them access.
“They’ve got quality, a large, quality squad with threats across the board.”
The pity for Munster is that although last Saturday’s rain-sodden 23-0 bonus point win over the Ospreys in Cork was the kind of reaction Rowntree expected after the preceding defeat in Parma, it came with an additional cost to their alarming casualty list.
Peter O’Mahony (hamstring) and Oli Jager (neck) have both been ruled out as a result of injuries incurred against the Ospreys, meaning that about 15 of their senior squad will be sidelined for the Leinster game.
Shane Daly looks likely to be ruled out along with Thaakir Abrahams, Patrick Campbell, Liam Coombes and Diarmuid Kilgallen. And with Ben O’Connor one of their nine-strong Emerging Ireland contingent, Munster’s options in the back three look particularly limited.
But in addition to Seán O’Brien being released from the Emerging Ireland tour, Rowntree was optimistic that Mike Haley will recover from the leg contusion which forced him off against the Ospreys.
“I’d say Mike will be all right. He got a bang on his leg but we looked after him. Billy [Burns] I’m not so hopeful on,” said Rowntree regarding the former Ulster outhalf, who sustained a shoulder injury on his debut in the first game of the season against Connacht.
“I’ll be honest with you there and I’m certainly not going to push him and bring him back when he’s not ready to come back.”
Against that, Tom Ahern, Ruadhán Quinn and Alex Nankivell “are certainly back in the mix”, while Rory Scannell, Daly, Paddy Patterson, Kilgallen, Coombes, Abrahams and O’Mahony should all return “at some point in November” as Rowntree also sought to put this latest “crisis” – Munster were similarly afflicted midway through last season – into perspective.
“You’re always reviewing what you do. We can’t shy away from our injury list, but you have to be calm about this. These days there’s a lot of data available, so we can plan training to the minute, we can plan the distance guys are running to the exact minute, and we’ve done that. We had a good drill-down into the data, and there’s no correlation between injuries. They’re all different.
“They may be in the same area, it may be in the leg, but they’re all different injuries from different aspects of the game. We had Shane Daly falling on his elbow awkwardly in Parma, Oli Jager with his neck, Pete pulls up with a hamstring at the weekend. There’s no correlation.
“You can be careful. At times like this you chase and look under every stone. I trust the people who work for us, the sports scientists.”
Rowntree admitted that he knew he’d “get a reaction” from his players last weekend and that conditions “helped” in their desire to be “super physical” as well as being accurate.
“It’s a big deal to nil a team these days, it doesn’t happen very often. To do it in the manner we did at the end of the game, Bryan Fitzgerald holding guys up over his try-line. The way we stuck in it was very pleasing. Just what we needed from the week before.”
Munster’s injury woes have opened the door for the 25-year-old Fitzgerald, who earned a short-term contract through his form as Garryowen captain, and after a debut off the bench in Parma he scored on his first start in midfield last Saturday.
“He is tough,” said Rowntree admiringly. “He’s a farmer. His hands are massive, a proper farmer. Fit, coachable, physical, he has been a real joy to coach and it’s such a great story for the province. I’m proud of him.”
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