Maybe all this game time, assiduous preparation, cohesiveness, detailed game plans and analysis of the opposition is all a little bit overrated.
Munster’s improbable win in Coventry last Sunday was a reminder of their emotionally charged victory over Glasgow at Thomond Park in October 2016 after a week mourning the late Anthony Foley. Coming a day after his funeral in Killaloe, they just pitched up on the day, survived the 18th-minute sending off of Keith Earls, and won 38-17 with a performance for the ages. Glasgow were playing the Munster nation that day.
Wasps didn’t come up against such a Thomond tornado last Sunday but you sensed Munster were playing for their people again. Also, of course, Munster could at least rely on settled combinations against Glasgow. Not so in Coventry. Brand new combinations abounded in every sector bar halfback and midfield. For two weeks the skeletal academy coaching team went back to basics and the Test match animals took the academy players under their wings.
Meanwhile, already missing 18 injured players, Wasps were hit with an outbreak of Covid-19 and completely revamped their team the day before the game.
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The net effect come Sunday afternoon of two cobbled-together sides with varying degrees of modest preparation was to produce a scattergun, rollercoaster – especially in that madcap first-half.
It was like watching the Barbarians against, well, the Barbarians. Not for the first time, it made you wonder if sometimes less is more, as in less coaching.
Play what you see. Nothing to lose. The fearlessness of youth, and emboldened senior players. Whether it’s the new law amendments and refereeing, rugby seems to be changing again, and for the better. Less restrictive. More instinctive.
Ireland have empowered the players more under Andy Farrell and they’re loving it. Look at Peter O’Mahony. It started with the Six Nations, but the Munster captain, both in word and deed, seems to be enjoying this lark more than ever in his career. Heck, he’s dropped the public mask and is even smiling and cracking jokes.
On Sunday, in addition to peerless aerial agility, O’Mahony seemed to be playing as an auxiliary fullback, tracking Thomas Young to the corner flag with that huge try-saving tackle, hoofing the ball 50m downfield, linking a back four to launch Munster’s best counter-attack of the season.
Granted, that ultimately led to Wasps’ first try, when Michael Le Bourgeois stepped an exhausted O’Mahony to put Alfie Barbeary over at the end of a particularly breathless end-to-end spell.
Afterwards, O’Mahony admitted he wouldn’t envy back three players for the ground they cover and the pressure they’re under.
Inspired by the novelty of the occasion, by Munster digging deep into their roots, O’Mahony took the powerful Daniel Okeke under his wing for a fortnight and a day. (What’s with the conveyor belt of number 8s? Maybe CJ didn’t retire so prematurely after all.) But O’Mahony didn’t overplay his mentor/coaching role for this game. He knew his best contribution was to deliver a performance. And he did just that.
Thankfully O’Mahony wasn’t remotely distracted by the brouhaha over his tongue-in-cheek reference to “those Garryowen feckers” in a humorous WhatsApp motivational message to an under-15 UL Bohs side. This seemed to upset a few people and compelled him to apologise to the Limerick club. But it’s nothing he wouldn’t say to their faces, or them to him with his Cork Con allegiance.
This win over Wasps may well stand to Munster for years to come as well. In the short-term it rallied the Red Army to make Coventry akin to a home game, and either way, but all the more so now, it should whip up a proud, fair old Saturday night Thomond Park welcome for Castres.
Munster’s schools/club/academy pathway system hasn’t exactly basked in the reflected glow of Leinster’s globally unrivalled production line. But this was a reminder that there’s life and talent in that pathway.
No doubt rival provincial supporters, particularly Leinster ones, will bemoan the latest serenading of another Munster Miracle Match. But even Leinster would have had to dig deep into their depth chart without 34 quarantined players and a uniquely made-up team.
In fact, it wasn’t unlike Leo Cullen granting European debuts to Peter Dooley, Tadhg Furlong, Ross Molony, James Tracy, Luke McGrath and Garry Ringrose in their sole pool win over Bath six seasons ago.
With another raft of new dynamic young players, especially forwards, Leinster look better equipped with the type of physical power with which Saracens and La Rochelle ended their European hopes in the last three seasons.
The performance against Bath was yet another reminder that right now you wouldn’t swap the Andrew Porter-Rónan Kelleher-Furlong trio for any other Test frontrow in the world. Leinster won pulling up rather than putting an outclassed Bath to the sword, and they were far from perfect. They’ll need to be better in Montpellier on Friday but something closer to perfection can wait until April/May/June.
Ulster’s win in Clermont and Connacht running the legs off a lumbering Stade Francais was not surprising, but Munster completed some start for the Irish provinces. Sensational individual displays abounded. John Cooney’s master class in game management and 19 points off the tee. In the land of “le petit generale” scrumhalves, he looked the part in what might yet be an audition. James Hume’s footwork and strength was sensational.
Jack Carty provided three assists in Connacht’s haul of six tries, and is playing the most assured rugby of his career, while there were more signs of Cian Prendergast and Diarmuid Kilgallen’s upward graph.
From Finn Russell’s genius on Friday night to Harlequins’ sleeves-rolled-up win in Castres, the first weekend provided the tournament with lift-off, helped by packed stadiums.
It’s back with a bang, but rising Covid-19 numbers with the new variant in England especially are a reminder of the threat posed to this mid-winter tournament across six countries. Fingers crossed.
