MUNSTER ALWAYS TRAVEL in good numbers when it comes to European away days and Saturday’s trip to Northampton was no different.
The 42 was reliably informed the pubs of Northampton were taken over by Munster’s red army on Friday night and we saw it for ourselves on Saturday, with plenty of red jerseys boarding early morning flights at Dublin Airport before enjoying a slow Saturday lunch in the cafes and pubs along the road to Franklin’s Gardens.
Northampton is a proper rugby town. With the football club, Northampton Town FC, bouncing between Leagues One and Two over the last 20 years, the rugby team’s recent success has been much-welcomed.
Last year’s Premiership winners and Champions Cup semi-finalists enjoy strong support and the meeting with Munster brought another sell-out crowd of just over 15,000. Franklin’s Gardens itself is a well-planned, atmospheric ground and the mutual respect between the clubs was evident as Northampton and Munster fans swapped stories on buses and trains pre and post game.
We overheard one Saints fan being almost apologetic for his team’s third success over Munster in just 12 months. The Munster support appeared reasonably content with having seen their team play their part in one of the games of the season.
Munster didn’t get the result they wanted but it felt like another positive step. While familiar frustrations around accuracy, handling and discipline crept up, they played some sharp rugby boosted by a handful of big individual performances.
Jack Crowley looked back to his best and led the Munster charge with a confident and commanding outing. He kicked five from six off the tee, and while he will have been frustrated to not convert Calvin Nash’s second try, he nailed a tough conversion from the touchline after Diarmuid Kilgallen’s late score.
The Bandon man showed some lovely touches in open play, including a neat pass to tee-up Nash’s second in the first half and a smart break to push Munster into the Northampton half as they chased the game in the dying minutes.
The performance should set Crowley up nicely for the Six Nations as the Munster player looks to wrestle the Ireland 10 shirt back from Leinster’s Sam Prendergast.
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Crowley delivered his best performance of the season. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Crowley went into the November international window as Ireland’s starting 10 but had a mixed month as Prendergast kicked off his own international career in supremely impressive fashion.
Crowley was part of a disappointing team performance against New Zealand but responded with a much-improved outing against Argentina. Andy Farrell opted for Prendergast as his starting 10 against both Fiji and Australia, and the Kildare man’s strong form with Leinster in the months since has left him in pole position to continue as Ireland’s 10 for the Six Nations opener against England on 1 February.
That selection call may have looked a little more straight forward just a few weeks ago, but Crowley’s improved form should strengthen his argument with Simon Easterby and his Ireland coaches.
“He was outstanding, he was excellent,” said Munster interim head coach Ian Costello.
“He got our heart rates up at the end when he made that last break. All round he was really good. It puts him in a good position heading off into the Six Nations.
I think people are probably reading too much into it with Jack. Jack’s played an awful lot of rugby, I think there’s a lot of external hype.
“Jack has been brilliant internally, he’s been driving the team, he’s been driving the team this week, and yeah, I agree that was his best performance (of the season), but I don’t think he’s been too far off either.”
Munster captain Tadhg Beirne added that the focus on Crowley around November was challenging for the 25-year-old.
“Look, Jack’s a phenomenal player and I think all the chat of him in the media, you know, he’s a young lad and he’s managing it really well, because some of it hasn’t been ideal for him,” said Beirne.
Tadhg Beirne. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“But I think he’s managing it really well and I think you’ve seen it in his performances over the last couple of weeks, how well he’s been playing, and I think he’s taking more and more confidence in that as each week goes by and I’ve no doubt he’ll carry that over into Ireland.”
While Beirne and Crowley will join Nash, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony in heading to Portugal for Ireland’s pre-Six Nations training camp this week, the rest of the Munster squad will turn their attention back to the URC, with a trip to face the Dragons on Saturday.
When the Champions Cup returns in April the province can look forward to another away day. The Ronan O’Gara factor elevates the La Rochelle-Munster tie to box-office status.
With wins over Stade Francais and Saracens both followed by away defeats at Castres and Northampton, it didn’t transpire to be the pool campaign Munster had hoped for – with the loss at Castres viewed as the most costly result by the players and coaching staff. The French side’s surprise win at Saracens yesterday saw Munster drop to third in the pool’s final standings.
Munster’s form across those games also showed why the province are not at the level of the competition’s frontrunners, but they have shown enough over the last two weekends to suggest they can still give La Rochelle a rattle when the competition resumes. While the French side impressed in defeat to Leinster, O’Gara’s men have struggled for consistency across the season, losing at Benetton on Saturday.
Munster dug in impressively to get the better of a gritty Saracens team in Thomond and played some sparkling attacking rugby in Saturday’s shootout against the Saints.
The squad themselves certainly feel they have more in them, and both Costello and Beirne were frustrated with large parts of the performance against Northampton, feeling they let a shot at a home round of 16 game slip.
“It was a different type of game last week (v Saracens), the kick chase was grittier, a lot of work and effort and maybe character moments last week and then we broke away in the last 20,” said Costello.
“Today was a bit more about being accurate, while being ambitious. And I don’t think we’re accurate enough and I think at times we’re hit or miss on our physicality, so it felt like a really, really good week.
“We came over pretty confident, feeling really well prepared, it’s disappointing that we just come up a bit short.
“No doubt when we do get to April, we’ll give this competition a real crack and at least we’re still in it.
“Our game is growing and we’ve had a good foundation for the last few weeks.”
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Crowley finding form ahead of Six Nations as Munster feel best is yet to come
MUNSTER ALWAYS TRAVEL in good numbers when it comes to European away days and Saturday’s trip to Northampton was no different.
The 42 was reliably informed the pubs of Northampton were taken over by Munster’s red army on Friday night and we saw it for ourselves on Saturday, with plenty of red jerseys boarding early morning flights at Dublin Airport before enjoying a slow Saturday lunch in the cafes and pubs along the road to Franklin’s Gardens.
Northampton is a proper rugby town. With the football club, Northampton Town FC, bouncing between Leagues One and Two over the last 20 years, the rugby team’s recent success has been much-welcomed.
Last year’s Premiership winners and Champions Cup semi-finalists enjoy strong support and the meeting with Munster brought another sell-out crowd of just over 15,000. Franklin’s Gardens itself is a well-planned, atmospheric ground and the mutual respect between the clubs was evident as Northampton and Munster fans swapped stories on buses and trains pre and post game.
We overheard one Saints fan being almost apologetic for his team’s third success over Munster in just 12 months. The Munster support appeared reasonably content with having seen their team play their part in one of the games of the season.
Munster didn’t get the result they wanted but it felt like another positive step. While familiar frustrations around accuracy, handling and discipline crept up, they played some sharp rugby boosted by a handful of big individual performances.
Jack Crowley looked back to his best and led the Munster charge with a confident and commanding outing. He kicked five from six off the tee, and while he will have been frustrated to not convert Calvin Nash’s second try, he nailed a tough conversion from the touchline after Diarmuid Kilgallen’s late score.
The Bandon man showed some lovely touches in open play, including a neat pass to tee-up Nash’s second in the first half and a smart break to push Munster into the Northampton half as they chased the game in the dying minutes.
The performance should set Crowley up nicely for the Six Nations as the Munster player looks to wrestle the Ireland 10 shirt back from Leinster’s Sam Prendergast.
Crowley went into the November international window as Ireland’s starting 10 but had a mixed month as Prendergast kicked off his own international career in supremely impressive fashion.
Crowley was part of a disappointing team performance against New Zealand but responded with a much-improved outing against Argentina. Andy Farrell opted for Prendergast as his starting 10 against both Fiji and Australia, and the Kildare man’s strong form with Leinster in the months since has left him in pole position to continue as Ireland’s 10 for the Six Nations opener against England on 1 February.
That selection call may have looked a little more straight forward just a few weeks ago, but Crowley’s improved form should strengthen his argument with Simon Easterby and his Ireland coaches.
“He was outstanding, he was excellent,” said Munster interim head coach Ian Costello.
“He got our heart rates up at the end when he made that last break. All round he was really good. It puts him in a good position heading off into the Six Nations.
“Jack has been brilliant internally, he’s been driving the team, he’s been driving the team this week, and yeah, I agree that was his best performance (of the season), but I don’t think he’s been too far off either.”
Munster captain Tadhg Beirne added that the focus on Crowley around November was challenging for the 25-year-old.
“Look, Jack’s a phenomenal player and I think all the chat of him in the media, you know, he’s a young lad and he’s managing it really well, because some of it hasn’t been ideal for him,” said Beirne.
“But I think he’s managing it really well and I think you’ve seen it in his performances over the last couple of weeks, how well he’s been playing, and I think he’s taking more and more confidence in that as each week goes by and I’ve no doubt he’ll carry that over into Ireland.”
While Beirne and Crowley will join Nash, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony in heading to Portugal for Ireland’s pre-Six Nations training camp this week, the rest of the Munster squad will turn their attention back to the URC, with a trip to face the Dragons on Saturday.
When the Champions Cup returns in April the province can look forward to another away day. The Ronan O’Gara factor elevates the La Rochelle-Munster tie to box-office status.
With wins over Stade Francais and Saracens both followed by away defeats at Castres and Northampton, it didn’t transpire to be the pool campaign Munster had hoped for – with the loss at Castres viewed as the most costly result by the players and coaching staff. The French side’s surprise win at Saracens yesterday saw Munster drop to third in the pool’s final standings.
Munster’s form across those games also showed why the province are not at the level of the competition’s frontrunners, but they have shown enough over the last two weekends to suggest they can still give La Rochelle a rattle when the competition resumes. While the French side impressed in defeat to Leinster, O’Gara’s men have struggled for consistency across the season, losing at Benetton on Saturday.
Munster dug in impressively to get the better of a gritty Saracens team in Thomond and played some sparkling attacking rugby in Saturday’s shootout against the Saints.
The squad themselves certainly feel they have more in them, and both Costello and Beirne were frustrated with large parts of the performance against Northampton, feeling they let a shot at a home round of 16 game slip.
“It was a different type of game last week (v Saracens), the kick chase was grittier, a lot of work and effort and maybe character moments last week and then we broke away in the last 20,” said Costello.
“Today was a bit more about being accurate, while being ambitious. And I don’t think we’re accurate enough and I think at times we’re hit or miss on our physicality, so it felt like a really, really good week.
“We came over pretty confident, feeling really well prepared, it’s disappointing that we just come up a bit short.
“No doubt when we do get to April, we’ll give this competition a real crack and at least we’re still in it.
“Our game is growing and we’ve had a good foundation for the last few weeks.”
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Champions Cup Ian Costello jack crowley looking sharp Munster Rugby Tadhg Beirne