Munster ride in to save the day

DEAD BUT never buried, impossible is nothing indeed. Another tumultuous Heineken European Cup weekend and once more Munster rode to the rescue. Coming hard on the heels of Leinster's latest implosion, it's probably not stretching things to say that the Irish rugby season was facing oblivion entering the last six minutes at Thomond Park on Saturday.

No better men to save the day and the season - and not for the first time.

A packed Croke Park and the Test game may still swell the IRFU's coffers more but the provinces remain the barometer of Irish rugby's wellbeing. Aw heck, just make that Munster.

They're the heartbeat and Leinster having lost their way on the road in sadly time-honoured fashion, Munster were less than six minutes away from probably failing to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 1998.

Munster coach Tony McGahan admitted his calm exterior did not reflect his inner emotions. "It's as tough as it gets isn't it, staring down the barrel of defeat, knowing that it would all be over or at least out of your hands? Huge credit to the players, tremendous belief. It's our third win in the last five minutes this season, so hats off to the players."

After a particularly hard-working year given the redeveloped Thomond Park's reopening, rarely can the Munster Branch have deserved Saturday's Christmas party more but, as with the mood throughout Limerick and beyond, even they would have struggled to raise a cheery glass had they been pondering a pool exit.

A happy Christmas? "It certainly will be now," smiled the Munster coach. "Round three or four of this competition is such a pivotal time. You can certainly lose it but you need to consolidate and we're happy to get five points from the week."

McGahan had figured that Munster would still have to beat Sale at home and Montauban away in the final two rounds in January to ensure qualification, and most probably he's right, despite the bonus later on Saturday of Montauban beating Sale 16-12.

What that result means, though, is that Munster can ensure their place in the last eight by beating Sale on the weekend of January 17th/18th/19th (the dates and kick-off times for the final two rounds will be confirmed tomorrow) before travelling to Montauban on the last weekend. Hopes of a home quarter-final still rest on two more wins though, whereas a Sale win in Limerick would leave them in the driving seat when hosting Clermont.

Munster had prepared superbly all week but for them to find the inner will to snatch victory from impending defeat is a tribute to many factors, not least their mental strength.

"It's huge, you know," said McGahan. "You don't just get to that point, it comes over a long period of time. It comes with a lot of experience, it comes with a lot of belief. Not only that you've been in those situations before, but you've trained accordingly, you've prepared accordingly, physically, mentally and emotionally. Those sort of things get you through in the end."

Yesterday, before Dan Carter launched his expensive sojourn with Perpignan - contributing 16 points to their 26-20 home win over Leicester in Pool Three yesterday - a dreadful Wasps beat a lightweight Edinburgh 19-11 to move within three points of Leinster before their potentially decisive Twickenham meeting in mid-January.

Watching the latest instalment from Pool Two begs the question: what's the opposite of the Group of Death? The Group of Life seems far too generous. The Group of Awfulness? The Group of Apathy?

Wasps can now overtake Leinster by beating them at Twickenham although Leinster would also clinch qualification were they to win that game. Most probably, they need to do so anyway.

Munster's late dramatics merely heaped the embarrassment on them once more after Leinster pulled off the exact opposite trick in Castres on Friday night, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory when reviving unhappy memories of similar defeats away to Bourgoin three seasons ago and Edinburgh last year after beating them at home the week before.

Despite the introduction of a third player with experience of Test match captaincy at half-time, as in previous implosions, Leinster looked leaderless. Admittedly, Felipe Contepomi's interval arrival only served to compound their problems given the rusty Puma has rarely had a worse 40 minutes for Leinster, and despite the party line that Johnny Sexton had a shoulder injury, rumours from the camp suggest he was given the shepherd's hook. Either way, it was not a good night at the office for the coaching staff.

By contrast, it's a measure of Munster's shark-infested pool that Montauban are the highest-ranked fourth side across the half-dozen groups and could easily be leading the group with 12 points given they were within a few minutes of beating both Munster in Thomond and Clermont at home.

Such is Clermont's squad of all the talents that they could afford to change six of their pack from the previous week, and in the warm-up it was striking to note that they had four players practising kicks up to 50 metres out.

"They're the best side I've analysed in my time here," said McGahan. "They can play the game in any format."

The Auvergne side showed why they could easily have gone to Thomond Park as the reigning two-times champions of France. But for their misfortune in running into the force of nature that is Munster over the last two seasons they could probably have been a semi-final side both times.

Admitting that this defeat was a huge blow for their chances of qualification, the Clermont outhalf, Brock James, vowed: "We won't be doing a Bourgoin on it, we want to perform well."

Rugby: pages 6 and 7