Two Ronan O’Gara tweets, sent amid a chaotic, pulsating match, summed the whole day and the performances of two men up.
Teddy Thomas, Simon Zebo, Andrew Conway, Virimi Vakatawa and more were on show but, in the end, two of the more experienced players on the synthetic pitch were ones that took the plaudits – Donnacha Ryan and Keith Earls.
Watching the game in the early hours of Monday morning, in New Zealand, Ronan O’Gara paid homage to two men he once shared the pitch with. The first was Keith Earls, after his sensational line-break, skip and drive for the line gave Munster hope of a glorious comeback.
Keith Earls… go up at get your MOTM.. different gravy#oldschoolwithnewwheels
— Ronan O Gara (@RonanOGara10) January 14, 2018
The second came at the death and not long after Ryan’s bloody-minded determination, from a restart, won his side what proved to be the matchwinning penalty.
Conor Murray had just arrowed over a penalty from the halfway line to put Munster 30-28 ahead but Ryan was not having it. He steamed off from the restart and launched himself airborne before wresting the ball off Ian Keatley and winning his side that crucial penalty.
Or maybe Donncha Ryan👍👍😜😜
— Ronan O Gara (@RonanOGara10) January 14, 2018
Ryan was superb for his new employers and showed the sort of aggression, work-rate and effectiveness at the breakdown that made him so popular with Munster and Ireland fans. He should, in reality, still be playing for both of those causes but the IRFU stalled too long over his new contract and he set his sights on a move to Paris.
By the time the union finally got a decent offer together it was too late.
Ireland have the strength in depth to, perhaps, cope with Ryan’s departure but how Munster would have dearly loved his presence on their side of the scrum today. Following Racing’s 34-30 victory, Ryan spoke with Sky Sports and had many of his old supporters cracking up. He commented:
“We dogged it out. It turned out to be a bit of a dog-fight but we were lucky to get there in the end,” he said. Asked if he was going across the corridor for a few post-match Pernods in the Munster dressing room, Ryan smiled and remarked:
“A few cans of Dutch Gold and take it from there!”
Some buck.
@DonnachaRyan best interview @SkySports have ever had. Few cans of Dutch Gold😂
— Aidan Costelloe (@aidancos) January 14, 2018
@DonnachaRyan: "A few cans of Dutch Gold I'd say." You can take the man out #Munster… 😂#R92vMUN
— Amy Couch (@amy_m_couch) January 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/matt_cello/status/952590535138652160
Following that chat, he then swapped jerseys with his old mate Earls and gave an interview to Michael Corcoran of RTE in Munster red.
Congrats to @DonnachaRyan on his 50th European cap… 48 in the red 🔴 & 2 with Racing 92!
Squeezing himself into Earlsie's jersey. #R92vMUN #MunsterFamily pic.twitter.com/NcbdujlOKn
— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) January 14, 2018
You can take the man out of Munster but, sometimes, you can’t take Munster out of the man.
