HOW OFTEN THIS season has that Jack Crowley crossfield kick skimmed the tips of Thomas Ahern’s fingers and flown into touch?
The margins in Munster’s disappointing campaign to date have typically been slim but on a day in which there was no room for slippage, Graham Rowntree’s men got the show back on the road.
Saturday’s victory at Stade Mayol goes straight into the province’s pantheon of European victories that made little sense and, in terms of performance, was right up there with anything from the 18-month Graham Rowntree era to date.
With their Champions Cup involvement on the line, a bonus-point success at Stade Mayol was made all the more extraordinary by the fact that Toulon had only lost four times at home in their own 14-year history in continental competition, while Munster were yet to win away from home this season.
It can sometimes take just 80 minutes to entirely alter the complexion of a season. Munster travelled to the south of France in rag order and return to Limerick having reinstated themselves as fringe contenders to win the whole thing.
Chatting to Rory Scannell during the week, the inside centre stressed that there was still a spring in Munster’s step despite a run of form which began with an embarrassing home draw against Bayonne and had seen them lost three straight since, accruing the cruelest of injury lists along the way. It was tough to believe him, but he was bang-on.
There had been a quiet confidence to Munster all week, particularly in the knowledge that they would be able to welcome back a handful of key staples.
Any team in the world would be buoyed by the return of captain Peter O’Mahony who was immense at the Mayol. His was a performance without too many signature moments but one of sheer bloody-mindedness, as was exemplified by his role in Munster’s stoppage of a Toulon maul in a dangerous position on the stroke of half-time.
Munster must find a way to retain the services of their captain, whose IRFU central contract runs out in the summer. They’re not ready to lose him.
This is partly due to his influence on their lineout, which has been astonishingly bad in his absence and without a consistent run of games for a senior hooker.
It barely missed a beat on Saturday as O’Mahony combined with 20-cap Ireland international Niall Scannell, on the latter’s first appearance of the season, to give their side the optimal attacking platform. It was instead the hosts’ lineout which crumbled under pressure — much of it again applied by O’Mahony. On the one occasion that Munster finally fluffed their lines, meanwhile, the omnipresent John Hodnett drove Toulon back over their own line on a bobbling ball to force the five-metre scrum that led to a disallowed Gavin Coombes try.
Much has rightly been made of Thomas Ahern’s test prospects ahead of the Six Nations but Saturday equally begged the question as to why Hodnett doesn’t feature more in the Ireland conversation. He’s a back row who, when the chips are down, tends to play bigger than his stature and while he was voted Player of the Match in the URC final in Cape Town last May, Saturday’s might have been the 25-year-old’s most complete display for his native province.
How realistic are the international prospects of Simon Zebo, meanwhile? It felt for all the world that the curtain was being lowered on the veteran fullback’s career last season but Zebo has reemerged this term as practically a new signing.
It was the 33-year-old himself who called for the chip over the top from Jack Crowley that led to Munster’s second try and the intensity with which Zebo celebrated his 35th dot-down in 50 Champions Cup appearances was a curious break from the norm.
He seems equally fired up defensively and it’s becoming clear that the Cork man has entered a late-stage phase of his career in which he’s keen to make the most of every moment.
It’s a short sample size but Zebo is now the form fullback in the country not named Hugo Keenan. Whether that will be enough to earn his first Ireland call-up in seven years remains doubtful — Ulster’s Will Addison feels the more likely bolter, if there is to be one — but it’s a testament to Zebo’s efforts of late that he’s in the frame at all.
Of course, the door is ajar only due to an injury to Jimmy O’Brien, and the Leinster man’s absence will also leave a vacancy on Ireland’s right wing, where Mack Hansen is also ruled out.
Zebo’s fellow back-three operator Calvin Nash showed in Toulon why most believe he should be the man to occupy that berth when Ireland begin their Six Nations campaign 65 kilometres over the road on Friday 2 February.
Indeed, in the instacne of an aerial dual between with Nash and 19-cap France international Melvyn Jaminet, only the Limerick man looked a test player as claimed the ball and streaked away for what proved to be Munster’s security score.
What Ireland will lose in Hansen’s all-round playmaking ability off his wing, they may gain in Nash’s straight-line speed down the same flank.
Craig Casey, whose perfectly delivered box kick led to Nash’s try, only strengthened his hand at scrum-half, where it remains to be seen if Conor Murray will keep his place as Ireland’s bench option at the start of a World Cup cycle that he’s highly unlikely to finish.
Casey and Murray’s half-back partner Jack Crowley would have been Ireland’s starting out-half whether or not he had been voted Player of the Match at the Mayol. The birthday boy’s performance was actually far from spotless but it was, in its own way, the perfect illustration of why Ireland believe he has the temperament to become their test 10.
A poor decision to kick — and a poor delivery, at that — spawned Toulon’s swashbuckling first score by Duncan Paia’Aua and left Munster in a 10-point hole early. This had virtually no effect on Crowley, though, who retained the conviction to lay on two tries with his boot.
The man who took the second one to the house, Thomas Ahern, looks every inch the test player and will be optimistic heading into Ireland’s squad announcement midweek.
Outside of their Ireland prospects, meanwhile, Munster have landed a stud in Kiwi centre Alex Nankivell, who along with Hodnett was again their standout performer at the Mayol.
A lot has been said of Nankivell’s capabilities as an auxiliary back-row on defence but not enough has yet been said about his sheer power in the carry. Illustrative of this was the eagerness with which Casey delivered him the ball for Munster’s opening try, with Nankivell blowing a hole between Waisea Nayacalevu and Jaminet from close range.
As an all-round package, the 27-year-old — who featured four times for the All Blacks’ second string between 2022 and 2023 — looks a test player in his own right.
Nankivell typified Munster’s doggedness on opposition ball, not only on the ground but in the tackle where Rowntree’s men went after the ball at every opportunity.
On Saturday, there was to be no second-half drop-off, a tendency which has crippled Munster so far this season. Instead, it was the visitors who turned the screw on their Top 14 hosts as the game raced into the final quarter.
By the time Munster welcome Northampton to Thomond Park for their final pool game next Saturday evening, several of their players will either be ebullient after receiving Ireland call-ups or bulling at the injustice of their exclusion.
It bodes pretty well either way.