Munster in South Africa aiming to atone for cruel loss to Sharks last season

Munster face the Sharks at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban on Saturday looking to gain revenge for their agonising place-kick defeat in last year’s URC quarter-final at the same venue.

That game finished 24-24, going to a nail-biting place kicking shootout, with Rory Scannell’s miss from range ultimately proving the difference, although it will largely be remembered for the poor sportsmanship shown by Jaden Hendrikse, who faked cramp in order to delay Jack Crowley’s penalty attempt in the shootout, with the scrum half being caught winking at Crowley on camera.

That was certainly dramatic, but Munster will be hoping that this trip to South Africa is not as eventful as the sojourns of 2021 and 2024.

In 2021 the majority of the Munster squad ended up getting stranded in the southern hemisphere due to the Covid pandemic, which led to their unavailability for the famous Champions Cup tie against Wasps, when a thrown-together side famously won in Coventry by 14-35.

October 2024 was the trip that ended Graham Rowntree’s managerial tenure, as he was out of the job within days of returning to Ireland.

It has never been fully explained what happened, but to go from winning the URC title to no longer being Munster head coach in the space of seventeen months never added up. One suspects we will never get the full story.

IMRPESSIVE

Munster had an impressive record in South Africa before that trip but suffered two heavy defeats then, going down 34-19 to the Stormers before losing the following week to Sharks by 41-24.

The trip in April 2024 was better with Munster beating the Bulls 22-27 in Pretoria, thanks to a late Conor Murray try, and they had it even more comfortable the following weekend when downing the Lions 13-33 in Johannesburg.

Saturday’s meeting with the Sharks and the following week’s battle with the Bulls would be low down in the list of Munster’s easier games in the campaign.

Wins would be great, but in the event that the trip goes the same way as October 2024 at least Clayton McMillan knows they have some leeway with respect the play-off qualification berths.

Munster begin the weekend sixth in the table, just six points off first-place Glasgow, but almost as importantly, they are also six points ahead of Lions, with the Bulls in eighth place nine points behind Munster, and the Sharks in 11th spot a full 15 points back.

Both South African opponents are in badly need of victories to get themselves into the play-off shake up, so Munster can expect to be playing against two locked and loaded sides.

You would imagine that Jack Crowley and Tadhg Beirne will have their workloads managed for the foreseeable after their Six Nation’s exertions, meaning huge contributions will be required from their back-ups.

JJ Hanrahan and Tony Butler have been Crowley’s understudies all year, but have not overly impressed, meaning there is a clamour for Ireland U20’s Triple Crown winning outhalf Tom Wood to be promoted, although hugely physical encounters against South African clubs are probably not the ideal testing grounds for young tens trying to make their way in the game.

INTERESTING

It will be interesting to see who gets the playmaking role on Saturday, although one suspects the easiest choice is to give the gig to the experienced Hanrahan.

Edwin Edogbo got capped in the Six Nation’s against Italy but was released back to Munster for the game against Zebre, where he appeared as a second half substitute for Jean Kleyn. Edogbo and Kleyn are likely to be incredibly important this weekend against a gigantic Sharks pack. Their considerable ballast will be much required.

It goes without saying that the robustness of the Munster scrum will have a huge bearing on how Munster fare.

The front row has struggled badly at times this season and the Sharks are likely to spell blood in the water here. The initial scrums will tell us a lot.

The hard ground in South Africa should suit players like Thaakir Abrahams and Diarmuid Kilgallen, so Munster need to play to their strengths to get them into space to utilise their speed as much as possible to hurt the Sharks.