By pitprop
January 17 2006

A five-point lead after round 5 leaves Sale needing a single point to win the group (or deny Munster a bonus point). But Thomond Park has been the undoing of many a team in the past. All is set up for a rip-roaring climax to the group stage. Pitprop takes a couple a valium and looks forward...

You’ve no doubt heard of the Mountains of Morne. They’re in County Down, Northern Ireland, and they sweep down to the sea. But the Mountains of Munster? Not heard of them? No, neither had I, but they’ll be real enough on Saturday. And its not down to the sea but up we’ll have to go to reach the peaks. Up - to scale the heights of the stands at Thomond Park. Up - to try to match, with our 1600 travelling fans, the singing and roaring of 10,000 plus Munstermen and women. Up - to overcome a team firing on all cylinders having just taken a French fifteen to the abattoir, and Up - to sweep away their home record of myth, which they use as a shield against all-comers. Something to do with lager drinkers in the land of Guinness.

So, as many thought, its come down to the game at Thomond Park, against Munster, who seem to think its their right not only to make the quarter finals every season but to win the damn thing. Who save their major efforts for the Heineken Cup, a tournament for which they have only very recently been asked to qualify. And their pass mark for qualification is effectively to finish above Connacht in the Celtic League. And if they’d been forced to qualify through a dog-eat-dog tournament such as the GP or what is now the Top14 season after season, would their record have been so impressive? Who knows? All we do know for certain is that the IRFU have got things pretty right for them, more than we can say for their Celtic cousins.

Munster haven’t actually been that impressive in qualification so far. Letting Gwent away twice without taking bonus points off them, and not even securing a bonus point at EP when losing to Sale. It was a mighty battle, but the Sale forwards definitely shaded it back in October. And the backs did too.

But last Friday’s slaughter of the Castres seconds signified that once again Munster were timing their run for the quarters. Munster were quite clinical in some areas. Their driving maul was one most French teams would have been proud of. Their backline, seemingly for the first time this season, got their act together, on occasion shredding the opposition. Two tries up at half time, they cruised to another five in the second half. O’Gara seemed to settle as the other backs found their feet. And the pack rallied around O’Connell. It was the Lion’s first HC game of the season, and despite not looking fully match-fit, he made a mighty dent in the game, scoring two tries. While it was a great victory for Munster, some account must be taken of the opposition.

Seigne, coach of the notorious Bourgouin non-competitors of last season, opted his new club Castres out of this dead (for them) rubber. A mere three first-teamers made the selection, and les Tarnais’ performance was abysmal. Defence became optional, particularly in the centres where Freddy Tuilagi was rushing up like a headless chicken. Their kicking game fell to pieces, and their lineout was picked off. When Teulet was finally brought on presumably to remedy the kicking, he promptly kicked a Munsterman on the floor to earn a yellow card. Perhaps the only area in which the Frenchmen prospered was in the set scrum. Here both Castex and Hoeft managed to pressure Hayes, who proved on the Lions tour that he lacked technical skills. And consequently the Castres pack were able to unsettle the Munster scrum.

Sale meanwhile set off at a cracking pace against the Dragons. Had we scored early the floodgates may well have opened. But the Gwent defence pulled themselves together, and held up reasonably well for the whole game. Sheri and Co. were exerting enormous pressure in the set piece, but again and again Gwent managed to deflect it. It was only late on that the referee started to penalise them with any regularity. It seemed from the Vernon that M’sieu Chabal (he of the shrugging shoulders!) had been made pack leader for the game in Big Tam’s absence – responsibility had a galvanising effect on him as he stayed in the game rather than, as sometimes, drifting in and out. His leadership seemed to challenge Bruno as the hooker put in an outstanding effort in the loose. The replay of Seabass’s try shows Sebastien No 2 looming large in support.

It was good to see the backs with ball in hand, and Charlie was heavily involved in three out of the four tries. Only one of the tries came from counterattack, although the Welshmen kicked the ball away often enough. Jason’s crossfield run set up Charlie for the angled run which led to Cueto’s second try. Defensively we were disappointing, letting in two soft tries. Defending like that out in Limerick will see us as group runners-up rather than winners. In fact the team seemed to do just enough to win and extract the bonus point from Gwent. A team more focussed and more ruthless would have put 50 points on them, and it gives cause for concern that both the last two GP games and this Round 5 pool game did not see the scoreboard ticking over with some frequency.

Expect to see what has become the first team’s names on the team sheet for Thomond Park, with White coming back into the back row, and Stewart or Turner at tighthead. And Martens returning to scrumhalf – his strength and aggression will be needed against the Munster forwards. The rest are very likely to be those named against the Dragons, and it will be interesting to see if they can eradicate the recently-appearing weaknesses and produce the intensity and performance required. The make-up of the bench will be note-worthy, with a five-two split in favour of the forwards likely. Predictions? – Titterrell, Stewart/Turner, Coutts, Lobbe, NBE, Courrent, Mayor.

PSA expressed surprise that we weren’t home and hosed as group winners with a home quarter final safely tucked away with 5 wins and 23 points. But Munster are always difficult to shake off, as many other European teams have found. Sale have at least reached their first goal for this season – we have qualified for the quarter finals already. Next goal must definitely be to win the group and bag a home quarter. Munster meanwhile have not yet made the quarters, and need a win to do so. For Munster to pip Sale to the group-winners spot, they need to win, score four tries and prevent Sale scoring a bonus point. If Munster fail in any one element of those requirements, Sale will win the group. But to secure a home quarter we are likely to need at least one more point, either match points for a win or a draw, or a bonus point for finishing within seven of Munster’s winning score (if they win), or for scoring four tries.

But the accountancy will only take place after all the games are completed. In the meantime Sale can focus on only one objective – to win at Thomond Park. A bad loss would dent confidence and could well condemn us to a difficult rendezvous in France. An honourable loss could see us with a home draw in the next round. And a win – a win would announce Sale’s presence as a mighty force on the European stage. A win would reverberate around the stadiums of the mighty, silencing the siren at Toulouse and the ludicrous hunting horns of Bath, causing the Fields of Athenry to sink into the marsh, and producing discordant notes from the Biarritz Band. But a win will require a massive effort from the Sale boys, a performance to exceed that of Munster’s visit to EP in October. Can they do it? Yes, I think they can, but there’s a lot of steep mountains to climb.