Munster raise the bar even higher

HEINEKEN CUP COUNTDOWN:MUNSTER IS as Munster does. The province that eschews crisis of confidence, losing streaks, consistency problems or poor form, approaches another Heineken Cup with little or no light illuminating squad weaknesses or deficiencies. Maybe it should be, Munster is as Munster was.

The team's self-containment, their ability to rarely dip below what they deem acceptable has become, among the debris of Leinster's two recent defeats and Ulster's almost total derailment, something of an industry standard.

Unlike Leinster coach Michael Cheika and Ulster's Matt Williams, Munster coach Tony McGahan and captain Paul O'Connell had no sidestep issues this week, and even the scrumhalf decision was resolved without rancour as an injured Tomás O'Leary moved aside for Peter Stringer. You could be forgiven for thinking that when the reigning European champions step out at Thomond Park to face French club Montauban under lights, they do so in a comfort zone, content with progress. Perish the thought.

"Thomond Park . . . it's a big symbol for Munster, the way the whole thing has been done on budget and on time," says Paul O'Connell.

"We'd see ourselves as being efficient and the players like the way that it went so perfectly well. So it is up to us to step up to the plate. I think it's cool. I think it's impressive. Some of these things don't run on time and don't run on budget. When Munster did it they made sure it did run on time and on budget and I like that.

"I think the guys like the way that's happened and I think the guys will be eager to do it justice and that will bring a little bit of pressure. But it will be a good kind of pressure."

O'Connell's thinking, his willingness to make the Munster team an integral and equally successful part of the larger apparatus is, on the face of it, an interesting proposition. With that thought he marries the aspirations of a province and its excellence in delivering a quality stadium with that of the team looking for an edge, one that can help them retain the most important cup in the sport.

O'Connell has suggested his team act as a barometer, not simply of Munster rugby health, but of commercial vigour and general provincial wellbeing. To do that the side needs broad shoulders. But this year Munster ambitions have been set to meet performance demands without the traditional sword swinging over their heads.

Those must-win, four clear try and 27-point margins are, they hope, like beating the All Blacks in 1978, quaint things of the past, while the clean run into the season has helped this season's process with little or no distractions for the top players.

"Previously there needed to be an edge," admits the captain. "There needed to be something, a chip on the shoulder. While we'll never lose that, I think we've drifted from it a small bit in that we've become more performance-orientated no matter who we're playing, no matter what the competition is, no matter what the motivation is.

"It's actually a hard thing to do for teams. It's a hard thing to master. It's something we've definitely got better at. If you look at our performance against Dragons a few weeks ago, very often against those teams in the Magners League we've done just enough to win and we've been caught once or twice because of it. But I think there was a great desire from the boys to keep pushing, keep pushing. I think that's a good thing for us."

If Munster needed to dig for issues, which would urge them to tread with caution, then a look at the season which succeeded their last Heineken Cup win in 2006 demonstrates the precarious balancing act that determines success or failure.

In 2006-07 Munster rode in as champions but lost to Leicester in Thomond Park 13-6 at the pool stage, having beaten them 21-19 in Welford Road in the first game of the competition. Although they won all of their other pool matches, the one home defeat ensured an away quarter-final to Llanelli at Stradey Park, which they lost 24-15. Last season under Declan Kidney, Munster beat Llanelli twice in their pool on the way to their final success.

"This year our pre-season went up a notch on other years," says O'Connell. "I think it was something that consciously needed to happen. We won it last year so we needed to take a step higher and I think we did that.

"I don't know if we did it two years ago. We were inexperienced then with how to deal with having won it. No doubt we tried our hearts out but I'd say there was a lot of wasted energy too in a lot of what we were doing. Hopefully we can draw on that year when we lost to Leicester and Llanelli and avoid a repeat."

O'Connell also knows Munster will be the biggest target in their pool for the other teams. Because of the silverware combined with the reputation, clubs know that being off a fraction means they will be put to the sword. The reverse also holds.

"That's always the way it is and that's something we have to accept," he says. "We accept that teams are going to raise their game to us but we also have to accept that in the early parts of Magners League games and Heineken Cup games we've let teams into matches and that's when teams start believing.

"If you let teams believe they can win, that goes a long way towards helping them win. We've talked a lot about the start of our games. We need to start efficiently and smartly."

Whatever people say, this Munster team is a new edifice in the image of McGahan, not Kidney. Justin Melck has arrived and made an impact, while Keith Earls has been the country's most exciting player since the season began. Kidney was as much resident psychologist as coach, while McGahan's hands-on approach may have turned Stringer's flagging season around for him.

"He'd (McGahan) be more into getting your job done," says O'Connell. "You know, technically, and making sure no matter how emotional or how much passion you bring to a game so long as you do your job technically well and aggressively it shouldn't make a difference."

With the captain straddling the old and new, the team's determination to live up to the idea of excellence and equal the three Heineken Cup wins of Toulouse seems, not unlike O'Connell's view of the new Thomond Park, a "cool" idea.

Munster Cool, it could catch on.