It’s one of the best things about sport as a spectacle; how quickly it can turn.
Ecstasy can quickly turn into agony. Belief to disbelief. A chance to no chance at all.
Not many gave Munster a chance heading into a European semi-final without two of their best players in Joey Carbery and Keith Earls and for good reason too.
Saracens had demolished Glasgow, Munster notoriously struggle away from home in meaningful games, Tyler Bleyendaal had started just three games this year and was then thrust into a side, and behind a pack, that had to go take on a Saracens outfit where five of their eight starting forwards were British & Irish Lions.
Needless to say, their task was mountainous, but Munster took to it the way they seemingly always have as a club. They knuckled down, rolled their sleeves up and got stuck into Saracens with their defence once again standing tall with two of their best attacking threats sidelined through injury.
At one stage early in the second-half Munster had made twice as many tackles as Saracens and yet it was just a three-point game at half-time.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised Munster held out for the first-half, because they have had the best defence in the Champions Cup pool stage for the last three consecutive seasons, so they were always going to be tough to break down, even away from home, but after going in at half-time well and truly in the game, Saracens eviscerated their chances in just 12 minutes after the restart.
The semi-final has its first try 🙌
Saracens go over for the score and there's a bit of day-light between the sides now! pic.twitter.com/qbnX60qtks
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) April 20, 2019
They were relentless, they played with poise and patience, they got around the corner, and after chipping away at the Munster defence for the majority of the first-half they eventually found a crack with Mike Rhodes finding some daylight after a misread by John Ryan and Mike Haley in defence.
Saracens picked back up exactly where they left off following the restart and within 10 minutes Owen Farrell had knocked over two penalties to give Sarries a 16-point lead with Munster playing away from home. The match was as good as gone at that stage. Saracens are just too good of a team with too much big game experience to blow a 16-point lead in a semi-final and just when it looked like Munster’s day was done, when another European dream had ended in another country, they scored.
They turned the ball over just metres short of the Saracens line and somehow retrieved it back from the Saracens scrum before going wide to Darren Sweetnam, who still had a lot of work to do to score.
Chaos at the Saracens scrum and Munster take full advantage! pic.twitter.com/MWtoz9497G
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) April 20, 2019
Sweetnam did very well to finish and his try gave Munster one last gasp of air before Billy Vunipola and Saracens suffocated them.
Vunipola made headlines for all the wrong reasons this week, and while his views are highly objectionable, his play on the pitch is not; he’s still one of the most devastating forces in world rugby.
He can attract defenders as a decoy, he can stop a team’s momentum dead in its tracks in defence and for someone that is 6 ft 1, 128 kilograms, 21 carries is a mountain of work to get through and he never relented. A recurring theme for him seemingly.
But it was more than just Vunipola, it really was a team effort. Statistics can be bended, manipulated and highlighted to make all sorts of arguments but there’s a few that just immediately jump out at you with Saracens.
58% possession. 64% territory. Four times as many clean breaks. Nearly twice as many defenders beaten. Winning all their mauls and 97.8% of their rucks while conceding just eight turnovers.
And then to top it all off, a 91% tackle rate in defence.
When teams show that sort of dominance it really is hard to make a case for Munster, and while Sweetnam scored in the absence of Earls, the loss of both Carbery and the Ireland winger really put the visitors behind the eight ball.
As to where Munster go from here it’s hard to tell. They’ll contend for the PRO14 title as far as this season goes but with regards to Europe this was the season that might have been their best shot out of the many they’ve had since 2008.
They drew with Exeter away, they smashed Gloucester away, they eked out a win they probably shouldn’t have won against a tough and grimy Edinburgh team in the quarter-finals.
They lost Simon Zebo to Racing last summer but they did add the top points scorer of the Pool stage in Carbery and one of Europe’s best players in Tadhg Beirne. Both men are seen as significant upgrades on what was there previously, and they’ll be back again next season, but Munster’s afternoon in Coventry really summed up one of sport’s oldest adages; sometimes the best ability is availability.
Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery because they have the bones of a team that can compete at this level. They just need that bit of spark in attack.
