IN ALL FAIRNESS - Can Munster regain its lustre?

IN ALL FAIRNESS

 

This month, it will be twelve years since Munster won their second European Rugby Cup

From the early days of the new millennium, Munster's quest for the holy grail of club rugby was almost feverish. Munster already had tradition with them, particularly from the 1978 team that defeated the mighty All Blacks, however provincial rugby was firmly third in the order of things in the late 1090's behind the international team and then the All Ireland League who garnerned big crowds right around the country.

It was Ulster's European success in 1999 that kick-started the professional era in this coutnry for the first time with Munster and subsequently Leinster developing off the back of it. Bringing Keith Wood back for one year for the 1999-2000 season certainly didn't do any harm either for Munster. He was Ireland captain and the country's best player and to have him wearing the red jersey again was always going to draw more people into Thomond Park for a competition that was still aiming to bed in its roots.

Then the results started to come and the first time you could say Munster rugby did the social consciousness was in January 2000 when they defeated Saracens in Thomond Park to make the knockout stages for the first time. Suddenly, rugby became sexy, not only because Munster were doing well, but also the social outlet of it for supporters who could have a drink at the games, plus also having away trips to England, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy which for some was reason enough itself to get away for the weekend.

Beating Saracens at home is one thing but cracking the code in France is another and later in that year when they defeated Toulouse in Bordeaux in the semi-final really got the bandwagon going for the final in Twickenham and the subsequent years that followed it.

What made the Munster story what it was were the many near misses they had to endure before finally prevailing in 2006. Indeed, there is a lot of similarities of Munster rugby and Mayo football where fans remained loyal even when ultimate success was eluding them.

If Ronan O'Gara's late penalty had not shaved the post against Northampton in 2000, would we have gotten the Munster story that ultimately developed. Would the miracle matches against Gloucester in 2003 and Sale in 2006 have garnered the folklore they have gone down in if Munster had already scaled the European mountain?

Then came the John O'Neill try which wasn't awarded in the 2001 semi-final defeat to Stade Francais, the hand of Neil Back in the 2002 final against Leicester, losing to a late try in the 2003 semi-final in Toulouse when the stars seemed to be alligning with the final being set for Lansdowne Road. 2004 saw Munster finally get a home semi-final but they ended up losing one of the greatest club games of all time to Wasps at Lansdowne Road.

When they fell again to Biarritz in the 2005 quarter final, you wondered had Munster missed the boat. However, they came once more and finally broke their duck on that special day in Cardiff when they defeated Biarritz in 2006 in one of the most special sporting occasions I was at as the sheet emotion of finally landing what they craved for so long was finally sated.

That they backed it up with a second title two years later when defeating Toulouse firmly ensconsed that Munster side among the greats of the game.

However, bar a Magners League success in 2011, no more silverware has come Munster's way as they now live in the shadow of Leinster who have left the southern province in its slipstream. Munster haven't been that far off but they are missing that x-factor the side had in the last decade. It was always going to be difficult to replace players of the calibre of Foley, O'Connell, O'Gara, Stringer, O'Callaghan, Hayes, Wallace, Quinlan who if you cut them would bleed red with the Munster crest on it. From there you added key foreign players in John Langford, Jim Williams, Doug Howlett and Sean Payne who knitted into the culture perfectly.

That same core of Munster players isn't there and it's no surprise to see the province fall back. Munster isn't just a team, it is a tribe where a core of players from the six counties is a must in terms of developing that spirit and togetherness which carried the team of the last decade such a long way. It is bred into them from an early age. From there you add a small number of key top class foreign players to back it up but Munster have tended to buy project players from South Africa, some that have worked in the likes of CJ Stander, but some that failed including Gerhard Van den Heever.

The additions South African World Cup winners Damien D'Allende and RG Snyman are what Munster need to be going after, key world class players to go along side the local lads such as Ben Healy, Craig Casey, John O'Sullivan and more that have shown great promise over the last twelve months and who will hurt deeply when they are successful.

That's the best way for Munster to get up to the levels set by Leinster and Saracens in recent years.