TOULON’S SIZE IS a concern for Munster ahead of Saturday’s Champions Cup quarter-final at Thomond Park, with powerhouses like Mathieu Bastareaud, Mamuka Gorgodze, Romain Taofifénua and Marcel van der Merwe among the many options available to head coach Fabien Galthié.
Using their fitness and intelligence will be a key part of Munster’s plan.
“It’s simple science,” says out-half Ian Keatley. “If you’re 100kg against 130kg you’re more than likely going to lose out there. We have little ways of being nice and direct and attacking them. But we also might have subtle little changes in point of attack.
“That will be our focus this week. We’re not going to be stupid and think we’re going to out-muscle them. That would be the wrong way to go about it. We are still going to be physical, we’ll still be direct and we’ll change the point of attack and go for the spaces.”
The power of Toulon’s scrum and maul was evident again last weekend as they hammered Clermont, but then Munster have qualities in those areas and sheer size doesn’t count for everything.
The rain forecast for Limerick this weekend could make the game more attritional up front, but it might also increase the effectiveness of Munster’s kicking game.
“We analyse opposition and we decide what is the best type of kicking game to attack every week,” explains Keatley. “Last week against Scarlets, we knew their back three don’t like to kick that much, they like to attack from deep.
“We said we could kick a bit more long and direct knowing they would run it back so we could try and fill the field a bit more. It didn’t look like it was working for the first ten minutes but we got our rewards later on in the half.
“So the same again with Toulon, we will analyse what kicking game we will bring to them, if it is going to be a kicking game, and we’ll see how we can attack them from there.”
The return of Conor Murray certainly boosts Munster in this area.
“Conor has a phenomenal kicking game,” says Keatley. “We try to use that, maybe not to the max but it is a wonderful weapon to have. That also opens up space for someone else.
“If they are worried about Conor’s kicking game, space might be on to run so we are trying to get that balance right this week. Hopefully, we can exploit the space wherever it arises.”
Injuries are, of course, a big issue for Munster this week but Keatley says “there is the confidence of the young lads coming into the squad, the likes of Stephen Fitzgerald, Calvin Nash and Jack Stafford.”
There is no doubt, though, that the loss of key players Chris Cloete, Tommy O’Donnell, Chris Farrell, Tyler Bleyendaal, Keith Earls, Duncan Williams and Jaco Taute makes this weekend’s task all the greater for Munster.
If they are to deal with Toulon’s threat at Thomond Park and secure a Champions Cup semi-final, it will be a major achievement for this group of players.
“Since I have been here, I have had five different head coaches, the amount of players that have come in and come out over the past couple of years,” says 30-year-old Keatley.
“I think it would be such a huge achievement for this particular squad at the moment. If we perform against Toulon and come out with a win we have put ourselves in a really good position to go and win silverware.
“You are only two games away from winning silverware, so it is massive. We were talking about it the other day and I am the third oldest in the group – Billy Holland [32] is the oldest and Duncan Williams [31] the second oldest.
“It is quite a young squad and the only way they are going to get experience is to play in these quarter-finals and hopefully semi-finals. It is going to be massive for the squad and we are looking forward to the challenge.”
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