Munster's big three smother Connacht buzz

NEW ERAS dawn but old habits die hard. If it is true that most rugby games are decided long before the kick-off, then the vast majority are pretty much done and dusted within 10 minutes. By then the script is plastered all over the wall.

Whatever age-old inferiority complex Connacht may take into this fixture, it is probably more than matched by Munster's inherent superiority complex. There were grounds for believing that the summer drain to England had hit the established three provincial powers more than their cinderella brethren from the west, thereby ensuring a more level playing field: Munster retained only five of the side that won the corresponding fixture 46-11 last season. But for this to happen Connacht had to set the tone from the start at Temple Hill on Saturday.

It began promisingly enough for them. Mick O'Neill lorded the early line-outs and Eric Elwood confidently landed a fourth-minute penalty. But what followed was even more telling. Rusty around the edges though they were, struggling in the lineout and turning over the ball occasionally, Munster immediately got their rucking game going, recycled the ball and were rewarded with two penalty goals within five minutes from Aidan O'Halloran's trusty, on the day, right boot.

Essentially, the plot for this game was always going to be straightforward enough. Aside from Connacht needing a sustained good start, more than that Munster needed big games from their big men - Mick Galwey, Eddie Halvey and Anthony Foley. If they did their stuff, then the force was always likely to be with Munster.

At 6-3, Halvey was already linking up in midfield, demonstrating that his innate footballing talent and handling skills remain undimmed despite last season's injury and cross-Channel hiatus. Then the first of several big hits on double try scorer Michael Devine stemmed a Connacht break-out at source.

Will o' the wisp scrum-half Stephen McIvor augmented an earlier reverse pass with one from between his legs for Galwey and Foley to launch the counter offensive, and O'Halloran dropped the sweetest of goals. Even allowing for Munster's enigmatic and minimalist tendencies, not to mention Connacht's fighting spirit, somehow you knew then, you just knew, what the outcome would be.

Connacht stuck with Munster gamely, and, like an irritating wasp, refused to buzz off and let the home side pull away. They even had the temerity to take the lead and pull back to within 10 points of Munster four minutes from time. Given the increasingly lob-sided trend, that took real cheek. Brian Carey looked a promising young full-back, John Maher made some good bursts up front and the enduringly consistent Willie Mulcahy punctuated his all-purposeful display with a couple of lively grubber kicks.

But the Munster big three did their stuff and more, while the front five began to clear away the Connacht debris to ensure quick truck ball. Galwey's overall performance and workrate was outstanding, proof of what a home-based professional can achieve. Re-born, he's now a lean, mean fighting machine.

It is the same Halvey. Back on familiar terra firma. clearly the grass is greener for the laid-back one, who looked like his old self. Better maybe. With Foley also having the fitness level to maintain his work-rate around the paddock, as Bob Dwyer would say and driving forward like a knife through butter at times, the watching Murray Kidd and Donal Lenihan must have been impressed. Home is where at least some of the talent still resides.

The concession of three tries and 28 points exposed defensive flaws, but as the opening salvos were to prove, Munster were invanably able to respond. They were also more alive to the counter-attack, but though Sean McCahill came into the line at pace a couple of times in the second half, the sadly absent Dominic Crotty may make a return for the major one with Leinster.

Given the original out-half choice Killian Keane is likely to be available - while O'Halloran landed seven from eight kicks in hauling in 20 points - Jerry Holland and his selectors have a couple of tricky selection posers when they reconvene on Tuesday.

For Connacht, there's more there, and with a European Cup place to fight for (at least until such time as decrees from abroad demand that Ireland is represented by club sides) plenty of reason to find it. Judging by Warren Gatland's sternish post-match utterances, he'll be cracking the whip between now and their pivotal game against Ulster.

"I was disappointed with our overall performance and especially with the forwards. We've got to have a scrum that's not under pressure and we've just got to be a little more accurate with kick-offs."

A redeeming feature was putting together "a few phases and scoring 28 points." Indeed it wasn't a bad old game at all, even if the absence of RTE's cameras and the passive 1,500-2,000 crowd told a multitude. "It wasn't a game where the crowd actually got involved which is difficult for the players as well."

Yet amid the early season mistakes and handling errors, there were eight tries and much good passages of 15-man running rugby.