AS GRAHAM ROWNTREE took the first handful of questions during Munster’s post-match press conference at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, Keith Earls sat silently to his left.
It’s been quite the couple of weeks for the winger. On 22 April, the 35-year-old won his 200th Munster cap away at the Sharks, but there were fears the outing may have been his last for the province after he limped out with a groin injury.
Yet here he was putting in an 80 minute shift as Munster booked their place in the URC final by beating a Leinster side who had won 10 of the 11 meetings between these two old rivals.
The scenes on the pitch at full time as the Munster players soaked up the occasion with their families told you everything you needed to know about what it meant for Graham Rowntree’s side, who are now just 80 minutes away from finally ending that long wait for silverware.
“Yeah, it was overwhelming at the end,” said Earls. “I genuinely shed a tear. You know, it’s been a rough season for me personally. It’s tough sitting out watching the lads and thankfully I got a shot this week.
It means everything. I haven’t won a trophy in 12 years with Munster, and that’s something I want to do because there’s only, I don’t know how long left.”
Earls, who is two games shy of hitting the 100 cap mark for Ireland, has an end date in mind but admitted “it’s kinda open ended.” It didn’t feel like a day to talk about retirement but the Limerick native, who debuted for his home province in 2007, did reveal he feared that recent groin injury had ended his season.
“It was genuinely over, but after a couple of days I started feeling a lot better. Good physios, good doctors, good treatment, Graham and the lads looking after me in training and giving me every chance. I was delighted. It was risky but it was well worth the risk.
“I’m exhausted, genuinely exhausted. It was a tough game, it always is, I’ve played with a lot of the Leinster lads in Ireland camp and I know how tough they are, I know how mentally strong they are and physically, tactically, emotionally it’s close to international standard.
And I know I haven’t played in a long time but that was definitely the hardest game I’ve played for Munster, 100%.”
Earls and Rowntree had come straight from the Munster dressing room, where the two men had listened to Peter O’Mahony set the tone for the next two weeks. The Munster captain is another player who was touch-and-go for the weekend, but lasted 51 minutes with the elbow he injured in the quarter-final defeat of Glasgow heavily-strapped.
Rowntree was asked how close his captain was to missing out.
“Good question… It depends if you’re asking Peter or if you’re asking me. No, with injuries like that, you give him as much time as possible, but I’m not stupid. I wasn’t going to take a chance. We gave him basically until yesterday (Friday) and I’d seen enough in what he did yesterday, and actually I know his character as well.
“We weren’t reckless with that at any point. So, we gave him until yesterday basically.
“He spoke emotionally after the game about what it means to him. You can see what it means to him, the way he conducts himself.
“He has led this group exceptionally in the last month. He came back from the Six Nations and didn’t have a break, he was straight down to the sauna in Durban with us and he’s pulling the group along with his performances. He’s a warrior, is Pete.”
O’Mahony and Earls are no strangers to the limelight but the most impressive aspect of Munster’s late-season surge has been the strength of the collective as Rowntree has made some big selection calls and backed a settled team across a series of high-stakes away games.
Young players are delivering when the pressure is on, with 23-year-old Jack Crowley the hero on Saturday, his nerveless drop goal proving the difference after a disciplined period of Munster pressure.
“It took some patience there,” Rowntree said. “Good game control by the half-backs on the field. It can get careless when you’re trying to run the clock down like that. You get a lot of referees who penalise you for sealing off.
“But our detail was really good there and Jack pulled the trigger just at the right time under pressure. That’s some skill that is. I’d hate to have to do that for a living. He practises that most days, so I was delighted with the outcome.”
In the days leading up to the game, tighthead prop Stephen Archer, who has been part of Munster squads since 2009, spoke about how enjoyable the current environment is. That bond has been evident on the pitch across a series of games that has seen Munster win at the Stormers, Glasgow and now Leinster.
“You mentioned Stevie there, we were calling him 160 minutes Stevie,” Earls continued. “He put in 160 minutes down in South Africa for a fella who is 35 years of age, the same age as myself.
“You know, Craig (Casey( has been around… Like, even the lads who haven’t played, Calvin Nash has been leading the way all year, Mala (Fekitoa) was there as well.
There’s just so many in the group and I think it’s the coaching, the way they’re bringing on the lads. They’re not frightened to pick on form, to pick players, drop certain players, and it’s made this squad unbelievable competitive, and that’s what we want.
“There’s loads of fellas hurting in there as well who haven’t been wearing a jersey today, but it genuinely is a massive squad effort all season with the fixtures we’ve had, travelling.
“Jean Kleyn is another fella who has been immense. Every Monday morning after a game he’s absolutely battered. But we truly are building a nice squad at the moment, a lot of young lads learning, a lot of good young lads who want to listen and who want to learn as well.
“So, yeah, we’re in a good place but it’s no good if we’ve nothing to show for it at the end of the season. It’s what we want.”
The final hurdle pits Munster against the DHL Stormers in Cape Town on 27 May. It’s a huge challenge, but Munster won’t be short on belief – it’s a month to the day since the province recorded an unlikely two-point win at the DHL Stadium.
“(We’ll be) Looking at how we broke we them down and dealt with their power game, but they’ll be better than that night,” Rowntree added.
“They’ll be battle hardened themselves, so it will be a real challenge for us, but we’re in a final, we back the work we’ve done, we back our fitness. That will be our sixth away game on the bounce, it’s unprecedented, and we’ll enjoy it.”
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