Scarlets take the win, but Munster should be proud of their season
Munster’s season was one of serious progression, despite PRO12 defeat.
Following a few turbulent seasons, Munster seem to have rediscovered their belief and look well set for the future.
Like Leinster before them, Munster were unable to match the pace and precision with which the Scarlets executed their gameplan. Scarlets timed their run at the league perfectly, finishing with dazzling performances to dispatch Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ospreys in the closing weeks of the season. In the final they delivered an irresistible display of backline attack. Directed by Rhys Patchell at outhalf they saw Jonathan Davies displaying his Lions worthy best in midfield and lethal finishing on the wings from Steff Evans, DTH van der Merwe and Liam Williams.
Don’t be fooled though, this is not just a team of flashy backs, their play is built on power in tight and razor sharp turnover work from their backrow. Aaron Shingler made quality metres with every bust, while James Davies was (as ever) a pest for 80 minutes. We also saw yet another outstanding performance from Tadhg Beirne in the second row — he was released by Leinster after a few injury plagued seasons, but is surely now on the radar of all the Irish provinces, though they may have a job convincing him to leave Wales.
Munster were blitzed in the opening 20 minutes and were essentially out of the contest before they even got started. Their own errors mounted up and they couldn’t live with the pace that Scarlets piled on. Being kind to Munster (and indeed Leinster) we could point to the recent semi-final loss in the Champions Cup to explain the flat start, but really they just ran into a red hot Scarlets team who would not be denied the league title this year. If coach Wayne Pivac can keep the team playing this way, it will be exciting watching them next year and hopefully they can have a real tilt at Europe as well as the Pro 12.
While they will not have been happy with the outcome in the final, Munster have had a good season and seem to be building a team capable of success over many years.
Hard to believe but we need to look back to 2008 for the last time Munster won the European Champions Cup and 2011 for their last league title. Declan Kidney was the coach who delivered that last Champions Cup and that is realistically the last time that Munster were the confident, dominant team that everybody feared. That mantle was taken over by their neighbours Leinster for a time, which had to hurt.
Since Kidney’s departure, Munster have had a number of coaches. Tony McGahan provided a league title, but his tenure saw a gradual decline in competitiveness in Europe.
McGahan was succeeded by the divisive Rob Penney who brought fresh ideas and a spiky personality. He returned Munster to the semi-finals in Europe but saw their league fortunes fall off. Did he jump or was he pushed? We may never know but there was debate about his suitability to playing the “Munster way” and he was gone after two seasons.
Hometown hero Anthony Foley took over and when two successive seasons brought pool exits in the Champions Cup there was a realisation that maybe it hadn’t been failures on the parts of McGahan and Penney, but rather the conveyor belt of talent from the academy had struggled to replace and live up to the levels set by so many years of excellence in the 2000s. Simon Zebo, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Keith Earls had come through, but who else since Paul O’Connell and friends had been true international class?
While the narrative has always been that Munster’s great European success was built on their forwards, they also had an extremely talented and settled set of inside backs in Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer. In the final seasons of their dominance, Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi provided a consistent midfield also. They have struggled to find that solidity since the departure / retirement of those players, indeed Munster have tried over 20 different centres since those glory days.
This season, things seem different at Munster. Anthony Foley was an excellent player and leader, but it seems was not suited to the Director of Rugby role. He was at his best and happiest down in the details as a man manager and day to day coach. Rassie Erasmus was brought in to oversee things as Director of Rugby and Foley returned to his favoured role as a hands on coach. Foley tragically passed away at the age of just 42 early in the season leaving the whole of Munster in shock.
Foley still had the chance to show us an example of his empathy and player management coming to fruition in his treatment of outhalf Tyler Bleyendaal. The highly touted Kiwi arrived in Munster with a neck injury and between that and other injuries he ended up not playing for most of two seasons. Foley never gave up on him and continued to reassure him that he was part of Munster’s plans and would be given all the time he needed. That belief is now being rewarded as in Bleyendaal’s first full season it seems that Munster have found an outhalf to pair with Conor Murray for the long term.
Munster have fielded a fine group of homegrown players too, with the young Scannell brothers being the highlight. Hooker Niall has already been capped for Ireland and Rory is set to tour with Ireland this summer, where he will be joined by eight other Munster players. Darren Sweetnam looks set to have a great career ahead of him on the wing and Jack O’Donoghue looks a real prospect in the backrow.
So, Munster seem to have sorted their homegrown delivery system and they have sprinkled in some signings from abroad. The previously mentioned Bleyendall was joined by now Irish international and Lion CJ Stander, while more recently Jean Deysel and Jaco Taute have arrived to bolster the ranks.
This more youthful squad were perfectly placed to deliver on Rassie Erasmus’s vision. He wanted to improve the defence and make Munster extremely difficult to score against. This ties in nicely with the Munster ethos of mistake free rugby and punishing teams with the boot. He has stated that the evolution on attack will come next, rightly believing that changing everything at once can lead to disaster.
On this solid platform Munster built a team capable of winning in all conditions and managed to top the league and reach the semi-final of the European Cup. In both competitions they ran into teams that were significantly better than them on the day. While Munster fans will draw little solace, these losses will have been excellent learning experiences for the young players and will provide plenty of motivation for next season.
The one problem position for next season could be second row where the long history of Munster having at least one veteran Ireland player will come to an end as Donnacha Ryan heads for France. Erasmus has stated that he is shopping for an experienced player to fill this spot and if he finds one Munster will be well stocked.
Periods of dominance such as Munster enjoyed are very hard to come by in the modern rugby world. So, while Munster may never enjoy such sustained success again, building on the progress of this season should see them competitive in the league and Europe for years to come.
