December 12, 2015 appeared to mark the end of two legends.
In Las Vegas, long-time UFC featherweight champion José Aldo came out swinging against Conor McGregor and was knocked out 13 seconds later.
In Thomond Park, earlier that day, Munster had been hammered by Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park. The former fortress had been raided and damage had been resoundingly done. 31-19 and barely a blow landed by Munster.
On Saturday, at the same ground, Rassie Erasmus addressed the media after his Munster side had won 38-0 to inflict Tigers’ worst ever European defeat upon them.
He remarked that Munster only had three new players in their squad – Jaco Taute, Jean Kleyn and Rhys Marshall. This, he said, is pretty much the same squad that had been humbled by Leicester a year ago; twice.
In terms of personnel, it is the same squad. In terms of spirit, courage and belief, Munster look completely different.
Only six players that started that 31-19 defeat were in from the opening exchanges on Saturday. Tyler Bleyendaal is now the undoubted 10, Darren Sweetnam and Rory Scannell are backline fixtures, John Ryan has been a revelation at tighthead, Billy Holland is enjoying a fine autumn to his career and Peter O’Mahony is back.
O’Mahony has been superb since his return from knee surgery and is performance against Leicester was is best yet. He had four lineout takes, one steal off a Tom Youngs throw, eight carries, four meaty tackles and won three turnovers for his side.
He was a ghastly foe for Tigers at the breakdown and they could rarely shift him before he had poached or slowed them down to a crawl:
Working in tandem with Tommy O’Donnell and CJ Stander, O’Mahony had his way with Tigers at the breakdown.
Typical of the Munster captain, he highlighted a drop-off in breakdown intensity as his major source of frustration after walloping a decent Leicester side. He commented:
“Our breakdown was light, we didn’t put enough numbers in and they caught us in the second half when they were under a bit more pressure and they went after us in our breakdown.
“We’d a couple of turnovers, they got a bit of momentum from the maul, so maul defence [must be better]. We were a bit lateral in our carry, particularly me, I was caught a couple of times going over. So there is plenty of work for us to do.”
O’Mahony spoke about Munster ‘falling off a few’ tackles but the official statistics read 87 tackles attempted and 85 completed.
Overly critical but done so on purpose. O’Mahony knows Leicester will be sharpening their axe for Saturday’s return tie.
While Erasmus highlighted the three new faces in the squad as a sign of last season’s crop finally coming good, the 3,369 familiar faces in the Thomond Park crowd was perhaps the biggest positive.
Our 4th sell-out of the season & 3rd @thomondstadium (25600) – Thanks to our fantastic supporters, behind us all the way! #MUNvLEI #SUAF pic.twitter.com/DQ2xrGhaOa
— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) December 10, 2016
For the fourth time this season, Munster sold out a home game. Expect that to be five when Leinster come to visit on December 26.
Belief is seeping back to the province and the fans are resurfacing. It has been a mutual buy-in and one hopes it continues.
There are a lot of ifs and maybes about Munster’s current run but you get the feeling that one bad result, whenever it does come, should not de-rail them.
12 months to the day when Munster spirit looked to be a myth. They are getting back to their best.
José Aldo got back his outright featherweight title late last month but he finds himself in a similar spot to Munster. Bigger tests need to be mastered before either can say they are truly back.
