Despite being a Leinster fan, journalist Brendan Grehan has good reason to look objectively at their situation.
AS LEINSTER were closing out the game on Saturday night, I turned to my brother and told him: "I want a contest". He swiftly replied: "No, give us a break. We should obliterate them".
Is there a crisis in the Munster game? There does seem to be a problem in the supply chain in the province and it saddens me to see this. By a quirk of fate, I could have been born and raised in Tralee and maybe I might have been in Lansdowne wearing a red jersey and barking about the "Dublin 4 Meeja".
The funny thing is that the media has been Munster Rugby's greatest champion. The Sports departments of the National newspapers are full of sub-editors for whom our noble code of football would not be their first love and it is too easy for them to resort to the "mighty Munster" tagline.
Apart from the odd young player coming through, it looks like Rod Penney has his hands full. They may sell a lot of Adidas jerseys but its what inside the jersey that counts. Munster will be back but it's going to take a while.
Young Kilcoyne from UL Boh's looks like he has good deal of potential. It is great to see new young front rows coming out of the treaty city.
A few years ago, I was sauntering down O'Connell Street in Limerick on route to a going away do when John 'Paco' Fitzgerald passed by enjoying a '99, content enjoying the late evening sunshine. I am a great champion of the Munster '99 as it is something that could disappear if the gourmet ice-cream brigade have their way. But that is a battle for another day!
Back to Munster, the problem is (and its a problem across the provinces) is that while interest in rugby has never been greater among the general public, there has not been a corresponding rise in player numbers. So if you go to any AIL club, there might be four senior teams and an under 21 squad. Hop back in a Tardis 20 years when the AIL was in full tilt and there would have been seven or eight men's teams at every top club. Of course the physical demands and the conditioning needed for the professional game means that you have to get the players in at early stage through the schools and the academies so at the end of the day you have a young centre who is built like an open-side and can break a tackle like a knife cutting a chunk of Manchego cheese.
The age-old Cork/Limerick divide is raising its head again down Thomond Way, with the worrying news that Penney (who lives in Cork) is bringing down the Limerick-based players to train down in the Peoples Republic. I don't know who is behind this but the Cork Con brigade really need to wake up and smell the Barry's Tea and move everything to Limerick. The team should have one training base not two. A Munster woman, whose late husband devoted most of his life to UL Boh's, expressed her concern to me on this issue on Sunday night. "Brendan, they're saying that he's going to move everything down to Cork."
She also then wisely pointed out that the IRFU won't let Thomond go and it is a magnificent stadium and I enjoy every visit. The walk down from the city as people from the most greenest of our four green fields assemble to cheer their gladiators on is always memorable.
Her grandson is lining out for the Clontarf U9s and got his first scrum-cap this weekend!
Funnily enough, when the FIR (Italian Rugby Union) announced they had chosen Parma as their base for the Zebre, there was a lot of unrest in Italian rugby quarters. They pointed out that rugby is not particularly well supported in Parma and that the current Italian coach, Jacques Brunel, lives in Parma and another powerbroker of the Italian game hails from the historic city in Emilia-Romagna.
Munster thrives on passion and there are few moments when a grown man starts to blubber, when the water works open, and its usually during the odd rugby match or at the end of a movie when the hero is on his deathbed. In 2008, I missed the Munster versus All Blacks game as I was doing a night class but what really moistened the old eye lids was the Munster Haka.
Another rugby moment that moved me was back in 1995. Then I was living in Boston. I was "between jobs" and my financial situation wasn't particularly healthy. I had just returned from my sisters wedding in Dublin where I had seen some of the RWC 1995 pool games. We had cable in our apartment on Fresh Pond Parkway in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I was watching the American coverage of the RWC from South Africa.
The Springboks were playing Canada in what later became known as "The Battle of Boet Erasmus". Tensions were running high from the start as the kick-off had been delayed. The Canadian team of the early to mid-90s had a very tough group of forwards. In 1991, they put New Zealand to the sword in the quarter-final and legend has it that the All Blacks pack were so knackered after beating Canada that they went into the semi-final in Lansdowne Road against Australia slightly worse for wear. The Green and Gold triumphed that day and the Wallabies really need to thank the boys from Newfoundland, Ottawa, Alberta and British Columbia for getting their name inscribed on the William Webb Ellis.
Getting back to Boet Erasmus, a brawl erupted during the game and Irish referee sent off Springbok James Dalton and Canadian captain Gareth Rees (from British Columbia) and Canuck prop Rod Snow (Newfoundland). All three players recieved a 30-day suspension. It turned out rather well for the Springboks as it meant that Chester Williams made it onto the starting XV. That was just what the fledgling Rainbow nation needed at the time.
In the post-match interview, Rees was asked about being sent off and he told the interviewer calmly and proudly :"When we don the Canadian jersey we are representing Canada and its people. We must stand together. We must back each other." Missing Ireland, my family and decent rugby analysis, the waterworks opened because Rees had just summed up what rugby and all team sports are about, backing up the other guys or girls on the team. The clip of the interview is out there somewhere but I couldn't find it. Here is a video of the infamous brawl.
Brendan Grehan is a journalist.
twitter: @brendanxavier
