Week 1 of the Heineken Cup and it was a mixed start for the Irish, with Munster the team with most to worry about.
Red alert
You don’t often see Munster described as ‘meek’, but that is the headline over their match report in today’s Irish Times. ‘Meek Munster caught cold by Edinburgh at Murrayfield’ is the full header and it sums up perfectly a game that the two-time champions never got a handle on.
Down 10 points early, they eventually roused themselves with a brace of tries via Casey Laulala and Mike Sherry but Greig Laidlaw’s boot meant the visitors trailed at half-time, 19-17.
An expected rampaging second half display simply never materialised and eventually Edinburgh did enough for a well-deserved win when Tim Visser burst through to cross the line with 10 to go. Only the crossbar, struck by a late Laidlaw penalty, ensured Munster escaped home with a losing bonus.
It was a frustrating watch for the neutral, so you can understand why Rob Penney was steaming afterwards, bemoaning his team’s ‘mental preparation’. The stats back that up too. Four lost lineouts on their own throw and nine penalties conceded is simply not good enough, especially away from the cosy confines of Thomond.
Before we lose the head completely, Munster lost the first match last year, away from home to Racing, and still went on to reach the semi, and their Pool this year is nowhere near as tough as the 2012 version.
That said, the margin for error in the remaining games has narrowed, and with Paddy Butler now out for eight to 10 weeks with a fractured thumb, and Simon Zebo also sure to face an undetermined as yet spell on the sidelines, next week’s home game against Gloucester already looks a bit like a must win.
Lam shanked in second half
Connacht’s latest brave defeat in the Heineken Cup was very familiar to regular watchers of the men in green. A raucous crowd, a significantly more intense performance than normal and an oh-so-close defeat at the death. Same as it ever is all too often in these types of clashes.
Pat Lam’s first European game in charge of Connacht had many high points. Against the best team in England they went toe-to-toe for almost the full 80 minutes, Kieran Marmion was a very deserving man of the match and they led most of the statistical categories.
But they simply couldn’t get the win over the line. There were more than a few reminders of last year’s heroic defeat to Harlequins about this one.
It took two second-half pens by Owen Farrell to get the win and Saracens looked mighty relieved at the final whistle.
For Lam, the positives will outweigh the negatives and it is a performance he can build on. If only they could have gotten the win…
Blue steel
If Munster were ‘un-Munster like’ in their sloppiness, Leinster were very ‘Leinster like’ in their brutal efficiency on Saturday night against the Ospreys. While the flair of the Leinster backs is often cited as their main trait, their defensive toughness and ability on set-pieces is arguably more important, and they nailed that aspect superbly against their old rivals from Wales.
The numbers back it up. They made 153 tackles at the Liberty Stadium, they lost only one of 17 lineouts and they turned over two of the Ospreys eight scrums. It was superb, and three kicks by Dan Biggar was all the home side could muster.
Jamie Heaslip’s majestic turnover, and Sean O’Brien’s monster hand-off ultimately turned the game, but the groundwork was done in the trenches.
And while erstwhile leader Johnny Sexton powered his new side Racing Metro to victory over Clermont in his opener, Jimmy Gopperth looked pretty good in his shirt in Dublin 4. That Ian Madigan stayed rooted to the bench for the full 80 told its own story.
A lot of people, including yours truly, had put a few quid on an Ospreys win. We won’t be backing against this Leinster team again.
