REDS OR FAILS?
CHRIS FARRELL admits Munster’s inability to progress beyond the semis will influence their approach today.
The rivals meet at the Ricoh Arena in a repeat of the 2017 semi-final in Dublin that saw Mark Mccall’s men run out emphatic 26-10 winners.
Munster have failed to progress beyond the last four since 2008 and Farrell insists that only by carrying the fight to Saracens can they make a critical breakthrough.
“We’ve got to get past the semi-final stage because this is our third in a row now,” the Belfast-born centre said.
“It’s a 14th semi-final, a record, but we’ve got to get past this point. It can’t be a sticking point all the time
“We can’t have the same mindset as in previous years, we’ve got to do something different and implement things that haven’t worked in the past.
“Saracens have been one of the biggest forces in Europe over the last few seasons. They’re always there or thereabouts but we gave them too much respect two years ago.
“We’re not going to sit back the way we did in 2017 and let them enforce their game in the second half.”
SARACENS
MUNSTER TV TIMES: Live on BT Sport 2 from 2.15pm THE last time Munster beat Saracens in a Coventry semi-final they went on to conquer Europe.
But it’s 11 long years now since the Red Army got to experience a European Cup final day – when Paul O’connell lifted the Heineken Cup in Cardiff.
That was the province’s second such triumph in the Welsh capital in just three years and Munster believed they had Europe cracked.
Since then, though, there has only been semi-final despair to deal with – six last-four losses in fact in those years that have followed.
And today, standing in their path to the decider, are Saracens – Europe’s form side who want a third Champions Cup crown in just four years.
But Munster boss Johann van Graan believes that referencing all that past European heartbreak won’t get Munster far now.
The South African head coach has only been on board for one of those defeats – last year’s deserved loss to Racing in Bordeaux.
“Our job for the weekend is the 80 minutes of rugby ahead,” stated van Graan. “We can’t look at what happened in the past. Everyone at the club knows it’s a massive week but composure is quite a big word. You’ve got to be able to handle pressure, not only from an individual point of view but from a team point of view.
“It’s something that we’ve been trying to work on. We took what we could out of two semi-final losses last season, did a big review and believe we learned out of them.
“If we win on the weekend everybody will say we’ve learnt our lessons. If we don’t win, people will say Munster lost another semi-final.
“Our only focus is what we do in the week and how do we handle Saracens. Unfortunately, they’re a fantastic rugby team, the more you look at them the THREE weeks after fearing his season was over Brad Barritt will captain Saracens today.
The 32-year-old centre turned his ankle and hobbled out of the 56-27 quarter-final thrashing of Glasgow on March 30.
Fast forward 21 days though and Barritt (right) has somehow recovered from that nasty ligament problem to lead the English aces at Ricoh Arena.
Asked whether he thought his season was over when struggling to leave the field against Glasgow, Barritt said: “Yes, in terms of pain, I had a pretty better they become. It’s a massive challenge for us to beat them in England but if we want to progress we’ll have to be at our very best.”
Van Graan has, however, studied the last meeting of these two European powerhouses, the 2017 semi-final at the Aviva Stadium.
Munster started strong but Tyler Bleyendaal had arguably his worst day at out-half and, as the Reds ran out of ideas, Sarries picked them off.
Bleyendaal starts today in the absence of Joey Carbery and while Jean Kleyn has won his race to be fit, Keith Earls hasn’t and is replaced by Darren Sweetnam.
Munster must now repeat their barnstorming performance in Gloucester earlier in the tournament to have any chance.
“I truly believe if you want to win this competition you need an all-round game,” said van Graan.
“You can’t only defend or only attack or only kick or only use your set-piece, you’ve got to use an all-round game to get into a final.
“That’s why it’s the Champions Cup, it’s the best against the best.” good inclination. I thought it was quite serious. But we have put a lot of time and effort into trying to turn it around. It is probably credit to physio Richard Bamford who has been looking after me every day for the last three weeks.”
Barritt has developed a fearsome reputation as one of rugby’s toughest competitors but he insists every top player will be managing at least one niggle at this stage of a gruelling campaign.
He added: “With rugby you are always managing one thing or another.”