Champions Cup: Toulon v Munster, Stade Félix Mayol, Sunday, 1pm Irish time – Live on Premier Sports
Injuries to Springbok World Cup winner Jean Kleyn and Irish prop Oli Jager aside, Munster have opted to meet a physical Toulon team with their own brand of tough. Not that they will have any alternative.
As they touch down in the south of France, the magnitude of the challenge is obvious in round three of the Champions Cup. Toulon have not been beaten this season at home in Stade Félix Mayol.
Coach Clayton McMillan spoke this week of Ulster’s 28-3 defeat of Munster in bitter conditions in Belfast on January 2nd having the effect of stern reflection and being on point physically and mentally for the Toulon job.
The expected sunshine and 12 degrees on the Côte d’Azur adds to what Munster hope will be two weekends of stark contrast.
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“I think we’d just be disappointed off the back of last week if there wasn’t some sort of response,” McMillan said. “I think people, Munster supporters, even if you lose, will appreciate that as long as you do that, go down fighting ... and that’s what we haven’t done on a couple of occasions this year, which is disappointing.”
With Scotland’s Ben White at scrumhalf, Italy’s Nacho Brex in centre, England prop Kyle Sinckler, France’s powerful backrow and lock Charles Ollivon playing in the secondrow and England backrow Lewis Ludlam at flanker, Toulon have quality splashed around the positions.
They rested their frontline players last week and were hammered 66-0 by Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle. That told McMillan only one thing: that the French were taking Europe seriously and didn’t feel at all embarrassed about the scoreline with the aim to get it right for this week.
“Toulon, they’re a physical side and they’re electric. They’ve got a good dose of Pacific flavour in there and they’ve just got a real balance, and you can’t afford to expect them to just play a narrow-minded game,” he said.
[ Champions Cup: TV details, kick-off times and team news with Leinster and Munster in action ]
“They can play through you. They can play around you. They can play a kicking game and they can play a loose game if they want to.
“So that’s the challenge when you play teams of that calibre. You’re going to get nothing for free and you have to work hard and be very accurate in everything you do.”
Munster travel mindful of that, but looking more closely at what they need to do, which is to tidy up their own backyard.
Two years ago they came away from Toulon with a 29-18 win and in this week’s selection McMillan has leaned towards experience and physical presence to offset the French advantage as he sees it.
In selection Dan Kelly, ready to spring from the bench, loses out to Tom Farrell and Alex Nankivell in the centre, while the Ireland combination of Jack Crowley and Craig Casey at halfback gives Munster big game experience.
Calvin Nash and Ben O’Connor, who Munster see long term as a better fullback, are out wide on the flanks with Shane Daly at 15.
How the Crowley and Casey partnership is able to take control of the game will be pivotal and, as Casey pointed out earlier in the week, there is a hell of a difference for his play selection depending on whether it is 15 or three-second ruck ball. That will come down to the pack.
There, Tadhg Beirne captains the side from blindside flanker, leaving room for the imposing 6ft 5in Edwin Edogbo and Fineen Wycherley in the secondrow. Jack O’Donoghue and Gavin Coombes at number eight complete the backrow with Beirne.
Loosehead Jeremy Loughman, hooker Diarmuid Barron and Michael Ala’alatoa start in the frontrow.
It will be the Kiwi coach’s first competitive visit to France with Munster following a 40-14 defeat away to Bath in round one and a 31-3 win against Gloucester in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last month.
“It is a cool competition. You can be on the other side of the world and you still get a sense of the occasion and how important the rugby is. It’s a brilliant competition,” McMillan said.
“My mindset around every game is we need to be somewhere near our best to actually win. I get the natural excitement around Europe, around derby games.
“But, as I said from day one, our challenges at this stage with the squad I think are around meeting our threshold and trying not to fall too far from that. There have been days when we’ve let ourselves down.”
With the top four teams from pool two advancing to the knockout round of 16, Munster are delicately poised at third with Toulon in fourth and Castres Olympique, who Munster play at Thomond Park in their final game of the pool, in second.
All three teams are tightly bunched with five points from two games. It raises the question that with Munster’s predilection for high-drama epics, what are the chances of a must-win final pool match taking place in Limerick on January 17th?
“There’s obviously a huge amount of excitement around European games,” McMillan said.
“But I said it after last week: I understand the importance of Europe, there’s a huge buzz around it, but also our challenge is to ensure that we don’t put those big games on such a pedestal that the other games that we have every other week we lose a sense of purpose in comparison.
“We’re not good enough at the moment to be thinking that way.”
A dose of reality. Perhaps just what Munster needs.
Toulon: M Domon; G Drean, N Brex, J Sinzelle, M Ferte; T Albornoz, B White; J Gros, T Baubigny, K Sinckler, C Ollivon (c), D Ribbans, L Ludlam, E Abadie, Z Mercer. Replacements: J Toevalu, L Ametlla, D Priso, B Alainu’uese, C Mezou, J Coulon, P Garbisi, S Tuicuvu.
Munster: S Daly; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell, B O’Connor; J Crowley, C Casey; J Loughman, D Barron, M Ala’alatoa, E Edogbo, F Wycherley, T Beirne (c), J O’Donoghue, G Coombes. Replacements: N Scannell, M Milne, J Ryan, T Ahern, B Gleeson, P Patterson, JJ Hanrahan, D Kelly.
Referee: K Dickson (Eng)
