GRAAN DESIGNS FALL FLAT
Pressure growing on Munster coach as cagey approach leads to another defeat
‘IT WOULD HELP IF HE’D COME UP WITH A COHERENT STRATEGY’
IT was another solemn bus journey back to Limerick for this beleaguered Munster squad yesterday. It’s become an all-too-familiar commute for Peter O’Mahony and his team-mates, another drive down the M7 contemplating yet another Pro14 semi-final failure at the hands of their arch-rivals.
You’d wonder what Johann van Graan was thinking as they rolled down the motorway back to HQ in Limerick.
He will have some time to contemplate his next move. A quick break and this squad will reconvene for the new season, which kicks off on the first weekend of October. It will be Van Graan’s fourth campaign as head coach and the South African must be feeling the pressure now.
It wasn’t just the fact that Munster lost to Leinster again, it was the manner of the defeat that will rankle most. All the talk of attacking evolution etc and the province reverted to type on Friday night.
Yes, it was damp and dreary, and it was evident that this was going to be a typical derby slugfest, a ‘dogfight’ as Caelan Doris described it afterwards, but Munster’s approach from the opening minute suggested that they had arrived with a remit of shutting down their illustrious opponents, as opposed to setting the tone on their terms. It probably made sense to Van Graan and the Munster brains trust when they were drawing up the tactical plan. Two weeks earlier they had gone after Leinster in the air, at the lineout and at the breakdown and all three areas reaped rich dividends. Logic would dictate that they should do more of the same.
The problem was that Leinster were expecting it and had fixed those areas in the meantime.
It’s the reason why Leo Cullen’s squad are operating on a different level and have been for quite some time. They are constantly adapting and evolving.
Therein lies a crucial difference between both of these camps. One set-up is defined by ambition, the other by fear. You won’t take long to guess which is which. Take the selections of Jordan Larmour and Hugo Keenan as an example. Larmour is an awesome attacking force and has given Leinster a new dimension since he began lining out at full-back.
He is very much learning the nitty-gritty of full-back play on the job, however. He is still getting to grips with his fielding skills and positioning in the backfield but, luckily, he has his very own Yoda in Rob Kearney to get tuned up.
Naturally, teams have gone after Larmour. England had great success exploiting him in the backfield when Ireland were beaten out the gate at Twickenham back in February and Munster deployed a similar tactic two weeks ago.
The conservative and safe option for Cullen would have been to go back to the old reliable in Kearney and shift Larmour to the wing.
But he stuck to his guns, backed his young rookie and doubled down by drafting Keenan – a greenhorn at this level – in the injury-enforced absence of Dave Kearney. Both excelled on Friday night.
Cullen did recall Devin Toner to the pack to fix the lineout, but there was still room on the bench for Ryan Baird to make a big impact in the second half. Another young gun in Will Connors was backed to man-mark CJ Stander and chop tackle Munster’s best ball carrier out of the game.
Now, take a look at Van Graan’s approach. This is the most exciting wave of youngsters at the province for the best part of a decade, but opportunities have been few and far between. Fineen Wycherely was benched for this contest to accommodate the experience and lineout nous of Billy Holland. Thomas Ahern looks like he has the right stuff at this level, but he’ll probably get a run out against Zebre in Musgrave Park in about six months.
Baird is only a year older and is already shooting the lights out for Leinster, yet this Munster coaching team are loath to give Ahern, who has the potential to be even better than the freakishly talented Baird, a crack at the big time. Apart from Shane Daly, the next generation are being a bit short-changed.
A successful coach needs a bit of luck as well and Van Graan has not had it easy. He will probably be without Joey Carbery and RG Snyman – two of his marquee signings – for most, if not all, of the new season.
Still, he has plenty of talent – established and raw – at his disposal and there will be no more excuses this time around. It would help if he and his coaching team could come up
with a coherent strategy for one thing.
What did Stephen Larkham make of Friday night’s tactics? The Australian has coached some of the finest backs in the world in Kurtley Beale, Israel Folau and Adam Ashley-Cooper during his time with Michael Cheika’s Wallabies.
It was his attack that decimated England in that World Cup pool meeting at Twickenham in 2015, a defeat which ultimately cost Stuart Lancaster his job and would see him end up at Leinster a year later.
Yet there was Larkham – a savvy, innovative and attack-minded coach – watching on as Munster hoofed and harried all night and for what? Three points after five minutes and absolutely nothing for the next 75 minutes of punishing toil. Van Graan can take some consolation from the fact his team will surely improve in the coming months, but so will Leinster.
They will take great confidence from eviscerating the Munster scrum on several occasions, galvanised by the knowledge that they did so without Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan and Dan Leavy.
All the post-match hype was about the power and impact of Doris, their latest freak of nature.
What Munster would give to have a young specimen like that in their ageing pack. Trusting a few of them in a big game might be a good place to start.
Plenty to ponder for Van Graan, who is running out of road.