Munster have regrouped and mauled way out of adversity

It's been a tough first season for Anthony Foley and his newly assembled, indigenous coaching ticket. The leaked email intended for the management which was inadvertently sent to all members of the playing squad on the eve of the season set the tone, and for months Foley appeared to have no luck at all.

Only a strong start could put that email issue to bed, but instead there immediately followed a 14-13 defeat at Thomond Park to Edinburgh, which was in turn compounded by a round-four defeat at their Limerick citadel to the Ospreys by 19-14.

This sandwiched wins over the Italian duo, and following on from end-of-season defeats to Glasgow and a second-string Ulster meant that Munster’s only win in five games at Thomond Park was against Zebre.

Twice wins over Leinster would kickstart Munster’s season, and there was the vice-like grip their pack and Conor Murray’s kicking game established in the home win over Saracens a week after the last-minute heroics over Sale.

Yet the neck injury that effectively scuppered Tyler Bleyendaal’s first season with Munster, and threatened his career, was compounded by the confirmed loss of JJ Hanrahan to Northampton next season. While there were some encouraging performances and results along the way, a sense of foreboding hung over the organisation until January’s unusually ignominious exit from Europe.

There was no shame in exiting at the pool stages for only the second time in 16 seasons.

However, whereas the three away defeats to London Irish, the Ospreys and Toulon in 2010-11 were to some degree understandable and forgivable, the home defeat to Clermont this season was compounded by the limpness of the defeat away to Saracens, which confirmed their exit was a little alarming.

Even Paul O’Connell had an errorstrewn match with a performance that was a long way behind his own exalted standards of this season or any other. BJ Botha too had one of his least distinguished days in the Munster red as their scrum was mangled in a manner which undermined the Springbok tighthead’s hopes of a new one-year deal.

Ulster have received plenty of credit for the way they overcame an injury-ravaged exit at the pool stages, notably when shipping 60 points in Toulon compounded defeats away to Leicester and the Scarlets.

By the same token, Munster have regrouped impressively. Since the Saracens defeat they have lost just one of their last 10 matches – away to the Ospreys. Botha has been rejuvenated and, needless to say, after that utterly uncharacteristic display, O’Connell has been a focal point for the pack which Munster have returned to in their time of need. When in doubt, they’ve gone to the corner, and the maul has often delivered.

Kindred spirit

It’s also worth recalling that the loss of Murray, who has been given far more influence in the team under this coaching ticket, was a grievous blow on the eve of the Saracens game.

The solidity, unfussy finishing and potent running of Andrew Smith was also lost to the team at the time, and Keith Earls was only on the bench that day away to Saracens.

No less than his kindred spirit Luke Fitzgerald, Earls has been back to his sure-footed best with an overdue run of games and retains an eye for the try line which is as sharp as any in Irish rugby – witness a run of five tries in his last six games.

Securing a home semi-final at Thomond Park, which will hence be home to only its second game since January, has put Munster in bonus territory. Yet reaching a final, or better still winning a trophy, would do so much to launch the indigenous coaching ticket of Foley et al. The ramifications for next season will be even more acute given results over the next two weekends will determine seedings for the European Champions Cup draw from first to second or even third.

Ultimately, Munster have accumulated one point more than last season, winning and losing one match less while drawing two more. Interestingly, in using their attacking strengths up front more, one ventures, as opposed to more of the out-and-out touchline-to-touchline game favoured by Rob Penney, Munster have scored 68 tries in the league compared to 56 last season.

They say luck balances itself out over a season, and perhaps some luck has been due Munster. There’s no doubt that Ulster created more chances in the drawn game last Saturday week in the Kingspan Stadium. Defeat that day would have consigned them to an away semi-final, and on top of that Eli Walker’s failure to ground the ball over the line for a fourth Ospreys try last Saturday in Galway was the difference between Munster being at home to the Ospreys next Saturday rather than away.

Sooner rather than later

No away semi-finalist has ever reached the Grand Final in the league’s previous five seasons of play-offs, although Foley has a point when he says that is going to change sooner rather than later.

Only a point covered the top four going into the final round of matches, and six covered them in the final table, by comparison to 12, 15, 16 and 20 over the previous four seasons when the top quartet went into the play-offs.

This would suggest this season is the likeliest to see at least one away semi-finalist emerge triumphant. After all, the Ospreys finished only a point behind Munster and have beaten them twice this season, once at the Liberty and once in Thomond Park. Put another way, as someone looking enviously from the outside put it, any one of the b******s could win it. gthornley@irishtimes.com