The Munster Effect
Ian McGeechan and his backroom team have selected more Munster players than from any other club side. Munster have a reputation for real mettle that few other teams have been able to match, and this determination and grit was clearly at the forefront of the mind during the selection process. The Lions, as a scratch team, always have an uphill struggle in trying to gel a disparate mix of quality players in a short space of time. By picking large clumps of the squad from a few teams - 20 of the players come from Munster, Cardiff and The Ospreys - McGeechan is certainly making this aspect of the job easier. Large sections of the Lions squad will have an immediate affinity and understanding with each other from the off.
Between the team announcement and the opening game on the 30th there is, and was, a fair bit of Rugby to be played. While Munster have already won the Magners League, it was in the Heineken Cup, Europe’s flagship elite tournament that they were really expected to show their worth. It’s certainly the competition they care the most about. Munster have seemed like a team with an almost divine right to win the Heineken Cup in recent years, but yesterday, in their semi-final against Irish rivals Leinster, they met a team on fire that simply wouldn’t be beaten. A comprehensive destruction inspired by Brian O’Driscoll and Rocky Elsom, final score, 25-6. The question is, will this have repercussions?
My worry is that in rugby, a hangover tends to last. Take The Ospreys for example. A team full of superstars that was expected to do great things and challenge for honours this season. However, in the 6N finale against Ireland, the test team faltered and eventually came unstuck, losing a tense match 15-17. The Welsh were gutted of course, but the hope was that the Ospreys could fulfill much of their potential and give Welsh rugby something to sing about sooner rather than later. However the malaise was contagious and the underperformance of Welsh rugby continued. From 4th in the Six Nations - a disaster for a team tagged favourites before the tournament - The Ospreys, the country’s premier region, went on to be nilled out of the EDF by Gloucester and thumped out of the Heineken by an awesome Munster display.
The Cardiff Blues have seamlessly taken up the mantle of ‘Wales’ Premier Rugby Region’, but the fact remains that the hangover from the Six Nations seemed to be lasting for many of the players involved. Will Munster’s shock defeat have a similar impact come the Lions tour this summer? I hope not, but it’s certainly a possibility. The Heineken Cup has proved itself once again to be a hugely competitive competition, but Munster wanted it more than anything. When you look at the manner of the defeat and the shockers had by some players in particular, namely O’Gara, and Alan Quinlan’s wait-for-it citing regarding gouging, the real possibility is that a core of Lions players will head off on tour with their confidence badly dented. What happens before the tour is as important as what happens on the tour. Confidence is a self-fullfilling prophecy. Once it’s gone, it takes time to recover.
In contrast to this negative outlook, I hope that Munster’s solidarity will prove this analogy between Wales and The Ospreys and Munster and the Lions wrong. The Ospreys have never looked like a really close-knit team, but rather a collection of stars. Munster by comparison are team-players through and through with love for club and pride in the jersey of greater importance than any single player. As a Lions supporter I hope that this togetherness will bind them tight and allow the shock defeat to wash over them without too much fallout. It remains to be seen though. If the Lions are to succeed in South Africa this summer, players like Paul O’Connell, ROG, David Wallace and co will have to be playing well. Let’s just hope that the defeat by Leinster doesn’t have too much impact on the them, or if it does that the see-saw effect sees O’Driscoll, Fitzgerald, Kearney and Heaslip playing out of their collective skins.
In chorus with the argument of this article I’ll be cheering loudly for Cardiff this afternoon even if I am an Englishman. Cardiff’s EDF display against Gloucester a few weeks back was simply the most impressive team performance of the Northern Hemisphere season and I’d like more of the same please if at all possible. Lions performing well before the tour is essential for confidence and potential prior to departure.
Between the team announcement and the opening game on the 30th there is, and was, a fair bit of Rugby to be played. While Munster have already won the Magners League, it was in the Heineken Cup, Europe’s flagship elite tournament that they were really expected to show their worth. It’s certainly the competition they care the most about. Munster have seemed like a team with an almost divine right to win the Heineken Cup in recent years, but yesterday, in their semi-final against Irish rivals Leinster, they met a team on fire that simply wouldn’t be beaten. A comprehensive destruction inspired by Brian O’Driscoll and Rocky Elsom, final score, 25-6. The question is, will this have repercussions?
My worry is that in rugby, a hangover tends to last. Take The Ospreys for example. A team full of superstars that was expected to do great things and challenge for honours this season. However, in the 6N finale against Ireland, the test team faltered and eventually came unstuck, losing a tense match 15-17. The Welsh were gutted of course, but the hope was that the Ospreys could fulfill much of their potential and give Welsh rugby something to sing about sooner rather than later. However the malaise was contagious and the underperformance of Welsh rugby continued. From 4th in the Six Nations - a disaster for a team tagged favourites before the tournament - The Ospreys, the country’s premier region, went on to be nilled out of the EDF by Gloucester and thumped out of the Heineken by an awesome Munster display.
The Cardiff Blues have seamlessly taken up the mantle of ‘Wales’ Premier Rugby Region’, but the fact remains that the hangover from the Six Nations seemed to be lasting for many of the players involved. Will Munster’s shock defeat have a similar impact come the Lions tour this summer? I hope not, but it’s certainly a possibility. The Heineken Cup has proved itself once again to be a hugely competitive competition, but Munster wanted it more than anything. When you look at the manner of the defeat and the shockers had by some players in particular, namely O’Gara, and Alan Quinlan’s wait-for-it citing regarding gouging, the real possibility is that a core of Lions players will head off on tour with their confidence badly dented. What happens before the tour is as important as what happens on the tour. Confidence is a self-fullfilling prophecy. Once it’s gone, it takes time to recover.
In contrast to this negative outlook, I hope that Munster’s solidarity will prove this analogy between Wales and The Ospreys and Munster and the Lions wrong. The Ospreys have never looked like a really close-knit team, but rather a collection of stars. Munster by comparison are team-players through and through with love for club and pride in the jersey of greater importance than any single player. As a Lions supporter I hope that this togetherness will bind them tight and allow the shock defeat to wash over them without too much fallout. It remains to be seen though. If the Lions are to succeed in South Africa this summer, players like Paul O’Connell, ROG, David Wallace and co will have to be playing well. Let’s just hope that the defeat by Leinster doesn’t have too much impact on the them, or if it does that the see-saw effect sees O’Driscoll, Fitzgerald, Kearney and Heaslip playing out of their collective skins.
In chorus with the argument of this article I’ll be cheering loudly for Cardiff this afternoon even if I am an Englishman. Cardiff’s EDF display against Gloucester a few weeks back was simply the most impressive team performance of the Northern Hemisphere season and I’d like more of the same please if at all possible. Lions performing well before the tour is essential for confidence and potential prior to departure.
by Tony Hart - 12:40 3rd May 2009
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