Murray Kinsella reports from Coventry
AS JOHANN VAN Graan spoke in the media room at the Ricoh Arena yesterday, discussing the opportunity ahead of his players, CJ Stander sat alongside him nodding his head.
“We’ve got big dreams,” said van Graan. “Big dreams make a man’s blood stir.”
At this point, Stander broke into a slightly menacing smile as he nodded once again.
Clearly, the prospect of taking down favourites Saracens in today’s Heineken Champions Cup semi-final [KO 3pm, BT Sport] has stirred Stander up.
He and his team-mates will need every shred of motivational focus they can muster in a game that may see blood spilt, with a ferociously physical contest expected.
Munster’s task was made all the more difficult with yesterday’s confirmation that key man Keith Earls will miss out, but the southern province still carry a quiet confidence that they can end a streak of six consecutive semi-final defeats in Europe.
They haven’t been in the final of this competition since winning their last title in 2008 but captain Peter O’Mahony, who sat on the other side of van Graan ahead of his 50th appearance in the competition, believes Munster can book a place in this season’s decider in Newcastle.
That said, he knows it will require something truly special from his team.
“It’s going to take the best game of our season so far, probably of this group’s time together over the last few years,” said O’Mahony. “Certainly, since Johann has come in, I have no doubt that this is going to be the biggest one, the toughest one.
“You wouldn’t expect anything less in a semi-final in Europe. It’s a great competition. To be playing alongside the group that I have and against a team like Saracens, it doesn’t get any bigger than that.
“These are the games that you want to be involved in but it takes an enormous amount of effort and willingness to work hard for each other, to get a win in this kind of game. We’ll probably have to dig a bit deeper than usual but, hopefully, we can do so.”
The sun will be out in Coventry today – temperatures of 22ºC are forecast – and Munster will benefit from more than half the crowd at the Ricoh Arena being of the Red Army.
EPCR are optimistically hoping for an attendance of 18,000 – meaning the 32,600-capacity stadium won’t be full – and it’s anticipated that 10,000 of them could be Munster supporters.
They should win the battle in the stands rather easily, but the task facing Munster on the pitch is a daunting one, particularly with Saracens welcoming captain Brad Barritt and England loosehead prop Mako Vunipola back into their starting XV after injury.
The lineout will be a key element, with O’Mahony leading Munster’s intent to disrupt against his former Lions team-mates Jamie George, George Kruis and Maro Itoje, while the maul contest will be feral and influential.
Both sides take pride in their scrummaging and Munster will target that as one possible area of advantage given the form of props Dave Kilcoyne and John Ryan so far this season. That tighthead lock Jean Kleyn is fit to start is a boost.
Mako Vunipola certainly lends Saracens more quality at scrum time, while it will be intriguing to see if he can immediately get back to his relentless ball-carrying and playmaking best around the pitch after several months on the sidelines – and whether his brother, Billy, can handle the inevitable boos to offer the same.
Both of these teams have had a strong territorial focus so far in the competition, often involving box-kicking from their scrum-halves, Conor Murray for Munster and Ben Spencer for Sarries, so we should expect plenty of touches with the boot too.
Owen Farrell, who missed Saracens’ demolition of Glasgow in the quarter-finals, is also in situ to guide an attack that is simple but lethally effective, featuring lots of pullback passes and superbly-timed running lines, as well as world-class decision-making.
Mark McCall’s team are brilliant off set-piece platforms and the likes of Munster outside centre Chris Farrell will have a big job in containing that threat.
Opposite Owen Farrell is Tyler Bleyendaal in Munster’s number 10 shirt, the Kiwi taking over with Joey Carbery missing due to a hamstring injury.
“Tyler is the general in our team,” said van Graan, “the guy that’s relaxed and laidback. We’ve all got so much respect for him. He plays a totally different game to Joey. He’s very calm in his decision-making and he will bring a different perspective to the game.”
Munster have firm belief in their defence – statistically the best in the competition – but it remains to be seen if their attack can create enough against this stingy Saracens side, particularly without Earls’ skills.
If van Graan’s side can show they have genuinely improved with ball in hand since a comprehensive defeat to Saracens at this stage two years ago under Rassie Erasmus, they could end up celebrating one of their greatest European triumphs ever.
Saracens:
15. Alex Goode
14. Sean Maitland
13. Alex Lozowski
12. Brad Barritt (captain)
11. Liam Williams
10. Owen Farrell
9. Ben Spencer
1. Mako Vunipola
2. Jamie George
3. Titi Lamositele
4. Maro Itoje
5. George Kruis
6. Mike Rhodes
7. Jackson Wray
8. Billy Vunipola
Replacements:
16. Joe Gray
17. Richard Barrington
18. Vincent Koch
19. Will Skelton
20. Schalk Burger
21. Richard Wigglesworth
22. Nick Tompkins
23. David Strettle
Munster:
15. Mike Haley
14. Andrew Conway
13. Chris Farrell
12. Rory Scannell
11. Darren Sweetnam
10. Tyler Bleyendaal
9. Conor Murray
1. Dave Kilcoyne
2. Niall Scannell
3. John Ryan
4. Jean Kleyn
5. Tadhg Beirne
6. Peter O’Mahony (captain)
7. Jack O’Donoghue
8. CJ Stander
Replacements:
16. Rhys Marshall
17. Jeremy Loughman
18. Stephen Archer
19. Billy Holland
20. Arno Botha
21. Alby Mathewson
22. JJ Hanrahan
23. Dan Goggin
Referee: Jerome Garces [FFR].
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to preview the Champions Cup semi-finals and all the week’s news on the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly:
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