No Leinster game to review so I must avert my eyes north to Ravenhill for some rugger blogging this weekend…
I’m closing my eyes and trying to imagine how I’d feel right now if Leinster had lost 6 from their first 14 competitive games in the season, including a 30-0 thrashing at the hands of our nemesis.
Yeah, I’d call that a nightmare of a start to a 2009/2010.
Yet down at Thomond Park they’re not only remaining upbeat, they’re rewarding their coach with a new contract.
Now of COURSE you can never write off Munster. Of COURSE they’re still more than capable of winning both Magners League AND Heineken Cup crowns this season.
But you can say what you like about what can happen in the future; when you consider the standards the two top Irish provinces have set over the years, even Leinster’s return of 4 defeats from 13 contests is disappointing, so that doesn’t say much for what’s happening down south.
The sheer arrogance of the Munster team at Ravenhill was unbelievable. Not only do they send a second string side, but when only 15-0 down with a penalty right under the posts and more than ten minutes left in the FIRST half, they go for the try rather than break the duck-egg.
They DID realise this wasn’t a Barbarians-style exhibition game, right?
The one try they did get was thanks to a Keystone-cops-style series of fumbles after Humphreys was actually able to make a tackle yet proceeded to leave the ball for JDV to pick up and score.
Well at least the home side appreciated the importance of the occassion. I mean no disrespect to Brian McLaughlin’s charges when I criticise their opponents because they were well up for this game and reaped the reward, much like they did when we travelled up there.
Having said that, their leading lights were in the forwards, with Tom Court winning MOTM and Ferris crushing anyone who went near him, and I have to say having seen him play several times this season, The Bearded One just doesn’t seem to have the game to make the step up to the next level yet I’m afraid.
But my point about Munster is this – not only was this a derby match, but they had already lost four out of their previous nine contests and I think that considering they’re reigning champions of this league they could have at least shown some desire NOT to make it a fifth.
And it has to be said, their failure to register a point in the second half says as much for their own attitude as it does for Ulster’s resilience.
I’m sorry, but Munster were very poor! I’d say it if it were Leinster (and I have done this season), so I’m saying it now!
Yet having read some posts since full time on munsterfans, they’re all still mesmerised by doing the double over Perpignan in the Heineken Cup. Yes, they were good results BUT ONLY when you factor in Munster’s poor form before then. How many HCups have the Catalans won again?
I know I sound like a sneering Leinster fan, and maybe in some ways I am, but I can only call it as I see it, and as much as I want my boys in blue to do better than our southern cousins, I’d much rather do it knowing they’re playing the style of rugby that won them so much success, and to be perfectly honest, since Declan Kidney left the big chair down at Thomond, I just haven’t seen it.
Now that I’ve gotten all THAT off my chest of course, they’ll probably go and win every match they play till the season’s out. But joking aside, that’s pretty much what they need to do now to save this season given those that have gone before.
