THERE WASN’T A better tighthead prop in the URC play-offs than Stephen Archer. The 35-year-old was powerful, hard-working, skillful, and accurate. In the final last weekend, he was more prominent than opposite number and World Cup winner Frans Malherbe.
Archer has indirectly been criticised for years with calls for Munster to make a big signing at tighthead prop. Not that the Cork man would have been bothered listening or reading. He has just continued to turn up for Munster.
Archer is now just five games off matching Donncha O’Callaghan’s record of 268 caps for the province. With another season on his contract, it looks quite likely that Archer will set a new record, copperfastening his status as a Munster legend.
Archer is one of the survivors of the 2011 Magner’s League title success who were there again last weekend in Cape Town as Munster ended their trophy drought. The then-23-year-old was on the bench back in 2011 and didn’t get onto the pitch as John Hayes played the full 80 minutes, but Archer made nine appearances overall that season.
Conor Murray was the starting scrum-half in that 2011 game. He had just turned 22 and was enjoying a remarkable breakthrough run that would end with him starting for Ireland at that year’s World Cup.
Keith Earls, 23 at the time, was on the left wing for Munster and scored a try in the 19-9 victory over Leinster. It was his fourth season with the senior squad, having first made an impact as a teenager.
Peter O’Mahony didn’t make the matchday squad but he had enjoyed a promising season, making his first two Munster starts at the age of 21. Donnacha Ryan, David Wallace, and James Coughlan started in the back row, with Denis Leamy and Niall Ronan both on the bench. Back row competition was strong, as it still is in Munster.
As they celebrated that day in the sun at Thomond Park, this quartet of proud young Munster men must have felt it was only the start of the success. Munster had dipped away from their Heineken Cup glory days of 2006 and 2008 but surely this league title demonstrated that there was more to come.
Instead, O’Mahony, Earls, Murray, and Archer had to deal with consistent frustration and pain at the business end of the season over the 11 years that followed.
It’s a struggle to accurately separate the instances of speaking to a heartbroken, downtrodden O’Mahony as the Munster captain tried to make sense of another disappointment. The times and places tend to blur together, although we can recall 2018 in Bordeaux after Munster had lost a Champions Cup semi-final to Racing.
O’Mahony was soaked in sweat, clearly exhausted, and staring vacantly through everyone in the media room.
“I’m getting tired of learning lessons,” he said. “I’m just tired of losing semi-finals.”
He seemed broken, but O’Mahony has kept coming back for more. There were to be further semi-final failures. There were near misses in knock-out games and there were also a few dire days like last season’s meek URC quarter-final exit away to Ulster.
At times, O’Mahony, Earls, Murray, and Archer must have wondered if they would still be around when Munster finally ended the long wait. The burden of expectation on the province to win trophies was unrealistic on occasion, but the players themselves never expected anything less.
Each of these four players has shown tremendous staying power. They’re well paid for their troubles, of course, but Munster means everything to them.
33-year-old O’Mahony had chances to leave the province and take on a new adventure in France but he never wanted anything other than playing in the red jersey he grew up infatuated with.
He’s had major injuries along the way, the ACL rupture in 2015 proving particularly tough to recover from. In reality, he’s always playing through injury, as he did again recently after suffering an elbow injury during the quarter-final win against Glasgow. He was forced off with a head injury in the final, having been excellent for 33 minutes.
Having regathered himself after John Hodnett’s comical curse, O’Mahony’s emotion was clear as he did his post-match TV interview. He stayed the course with Munster and finally has his first trophy as the province’s captain. 2011 might not have felt like his, but this one is.
35-year-old Earls has 202 caps for Munster now, which is remarkable considering how often he has been cut down by injuries. The Limerick man has had to show great resilience to bounce back time after time, but always keeps coming back for more.
Unbeknownst to all of us, he was also dealing with mental health issues along the way, as he revealed in his outstanding 2021 autobiography ‘Fight Or Flight.’ Earls has been through so much in rugby and in life. He’s an inspiring figure in more ways than one.
He too could have exited Munster to move abroad but he just couldn’t bring himself to leave it all behind. His team-mates held him aloft in Cape Town. And it’s clear there’s more left in Earls’ tank.
Murray has had to overcome worrying injury too. His neck injury in the 2018/19 season was worrying and led to some scurrilous rumours that were hurtful for Murray and his family.
It did take the scrum-half a long time to completely shake off the lingering issue but he got back to full physical health. The 34-year-old has had ups and downs since and even this season in Munster involved Murray being dropped from the matchday 23 at one stage, with Craig Casey and Paddy Patterson preferred.
As is his way, Murray stayed calm and bounced back strongly. He has been superb in the second half of the season for both Ireland and Munster. His performance in the final was full of class, energy, and nous.
Archer hasn’t really had to deal with the injuries the other three have. As his caps total suggests, he has remarkable durability. Looking across the course of the seasons, Archer has also been heavily used at tighthead, even if he hasn’t always been the starter. He’s had battles with the likes of John Ryan, who will return from New Zealand next season.
But neither has Archer had the success and highs the other three have enjoyed with Ireland. He won two Test caps back in 2013 but hasn’t been able to link up with the international squad and win things. He didn’t have that release. Archer has just kept turning up in Munster every pre-season with the hope of lifting a trophy the following summer.
He has been part of some miserable days with Munster so it was impossible to be anything other than pleased for Archer getting this reward for his staying power.
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