| Shoulder to shoulder And
so the dream of retaining the Heineken Cup has gone blown away by a Llanelli
side that had done their homework on Munster.
Beating the Welsh lads at Stradey Park was never going to be easy. They
haven’t lost there in 14 months and it’s the closest ground
you’ll get to Thomond Park in terms of atmosphere and raw passion.
Munster really struggled on Friday. They never got going and the fact
that they performed so poorly and never did themselves justice will be
as disappointing as the result itself.
It’s one thing losing when you play as well as you can. At least
then you can say: “Well we were beaten by a better side.”
But there’s nothing worse than being beaten after playing badly.
Munster’s cause wasn’t helped by a poor defensive display.
To win at this level your defence has to be top notch you just can’t
afford to miss tackles. Three or four were missed on Friday and we paid
the price.
Saying that I don’t want to take anything away from a tremendous
Llanelli display.
The loss of Paul O’Connell and Shaun Payne certainly hampered Munster.
That raw edge that O’Connell brings to the team was missing.
It was a similar story with Leinster on Saturday the loss of Brian O’Driscoll
was a huge blow to them.
Both results and more particularly the manner in which they were affected
by injuries to key players proves Ireland’s pool of talent isn’t
really that deep. We’re only ever a few injuries from disaster.
With that in mind the fact that the provinces have departed the Heineken
Cup stage should give the international players some badly needed rest
time before the start of the World Cup build-up in August.
There is no doubt that Ireland’s internationals were not as sharp
for the provinces at the weekend as they would have liked to be. Ronan
O’Gara admitted as much after Friday’s game.
However it’s hard to maintain that level of performance week-in
and week-out. The Irish players put a massive effort into the Six Nations
and it is difficult to come out and lift yourself again for a Heineken
Cup quarter-final.
I don’t care how committed and motivated a player is it’s
nearly impossible to stay at peak fitness mentally and physically for
a full season. And the performances of both Leinster and Munster at the
weekend prove that.
All in all it was a sad end to this season’s campaign for Irish
sides but Munster in particular have given us great memories over the
last few seasons and I’ve no doubt that they will bounce back. They
always do. |
