THERE IS A story about Liverpool players losing the plot in a grudge European game way back in September 1978.
A sudden and unexpected rivalry had developed between the club and Nottingham Forest, one that had reached its height in the previous year’s League Cup final, when Forest won the final, after a replay and a dodgy penalty, against the Merseysiders.
Incredibly, given they had only just scraped into the top flight 12 months earlier, Brian Clough’s team then went and won the league, Liverpool the deposed champions having to be satisfied with a European Cup, hardly the shabbiest of consolation prizes.
Still, there was payback due when the defending European champions were drawn against their English rivals in the first round of the 1978/79 European Cup just a few months later.
The trouble was that Clough had written a different script. Yet again he had unearthed an uncut gem. Garry Birtles was the kid’s name. A forward, he sported a dodgy-looking beard. Clough made him shave it off before a European Cup final because he thought it made the kid look nervous. Forest won that final.
They also won this grudge match in Nottingham – Birtles scoring the goal that launched his career in the first half.
That was when things got spicy. That Liverpool team weren’t great losers and the prospect of another defeat to these upstarts from the east midlands was too much to contemplate.
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So they rolled the dice, replacing a midfielder, Terry McDermott, with a forward, David Johnson, in a desperate search for an equaliser.
Big mistake – Forest caught them on the counter-attack with three minutes left and doubled their lead through Colin Barrett. After that, the second leg became a whole lot easier. “We treated it like a league game,” Phil Thompson, the Liverpool stalwart, future captain and one-time assistant manager, said.
“Because it was another English team, we forgot it was a European fixture. One-nil wouldn’t have been that bad a result. But we went for it – naively. By the time we learned our lesson, it was too late.”
Souness congratulates John Robertson. PA
PA
Game-management is the lesson Leo Cullen, Johann van Graan, Andy Friend and Dan McFarland will be seeking to teach their players this week. For once, their 80-minute game is only part of a bigger picture.
Leinster travel to Galway to face Connacht; Munster to Exeter; Ulster to Toulouse. The key is having something to play for in the second leg, to not fret about the score on the night when there are 80 minutes on home soil to problem solve.
“It’s going to be foreign to all 16 teams,” van Graan said about the two-legged nature of these fixtures. “I actually spoke to one or two football coaches, [Because] if you look at the way that football does it, it’s like the end of the game after the first leg is actually half-time. So whether you win or lose, it’s all going to come down to the last game here at Thomond Park in two weeks’ time.”
“It’s a slightly unusual dynamic in terms of the two-leg piece,” agreed Cullen. ”It’s just about getting yourself in position so now it’s just delivering on some of the bigger days, which are the play-off games. We’ve our first play-off game. We want to stay busy.”
Play as well as they did on Saturday and they will be busy throughout April and May, as that performance in Limerick was exceptional, not just from the stand-out stars, Garry Ringrose and Caelan Doris, but also the unheralded players such as Ed Byrne and the soon-to-retire Devin Toner.
“There’s no better place to win than Thomond,” said the 35-year-old Toner afterwards. “To win here is extra special. Probably my favourite place to win I suppose. But you see with that first lineout, I called and called but no one heard because of the crowd. That’s something to be proud of here, the crowd is brilliant. But it’s good to keep them quiet as well, from our point of view.”
Toner runs out at Thomond for a final time. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
From Munster’s perspective, this was a blow, not just in terms of their URC ambitions but also in stripping them of any momentum ahead of their Exeter double-header.
“You’ve got to look at the game the way it is and I felt we weren’t outplayed tonight,” said van Graan. “We were beaten by the better team. Unfortunately if you concede so many penalties [six breakdown penalties contributed to the 11-9 count in Leinster’s favour], the penalties come from pressure.
“Look, you’ve got to give that to them. Their kicking game was excellent. I thought their set-piece was good. We felt actually we did very well in the scrum battle, they won their lineout ball, we lost a lineout in a crucial time.
“That’s the game of rugby and they are currently the best team so we’ve got to be better across 80 minutes to beat them.”
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Van Graan seeks advice from soccer coaches to learn tricks of the two-leg trade
THERE IS A story about Liverpool players losing the plot in a grudge European game way back in September 1978.
A sudden and unexpected rivalry had developed between the club and Nottingham Forest, one that had reached its height in the previous year’s League Cup final, when Forest won the final, after a replay and a dodgy penalty, against the Merseysiders.
Incredibly, given they had only just scraped into the top flight 12 months earlier, Brian Clough’s team then went and won the league, Liverpool the deposed champions having to be satisfied with a European Cup, hardly the shabbiest of consolation prizes.
Still, there was payback due when the defending European champions were drawn against their English rivals in the first round of the 1978/79 European Cup just a few months later.
The trouble was that Clough had written a different script. Yet again he had unearthed an uncut gem. Garry Birtles was the kid’s name. A forward, he sported a dodgy-looking beard. Clough made him shave it off before a European Cup final because he thought it made the kid look nervous. Forest won that final.
They also won this grudge match in Nottingham – Birtles scoring the goal that launched his career in the first half.
That was when things got spicy. That Liverpool team weren’t great losers and the prospect of another defeat to these upstarts from the east midlands was too much to contemplate.
So they rolled the dice, replacing a midfielder, Terry McDermott, with a forward, David Johnson, in a desperate search for an equaliser.
Big mistake – Forest caught them on the counter-attack with three minutes left and doubled their lead through Colin Barrett. After that, the second leg became a whole lot easier. “We treated it like a league game,” Phil Thompson, the Liverpool stalwart, future captain and one-time assistant manager, said.
“Because it was another English team, we forgot it was a European fixture. One-nil wouldn’t have been that bad a result. But we went for it – naively. By the time we learned our lesson, it was too late.”
Game-management is the lesson Leo Cullen, Johann van Graan, Andy Friend and Dan McFarland will be seeking to teach their players this week. For once, their 80-minute game is only part of a bigger picture.
Leinster travel to Galway to face Connacht; Munster to Exeter; Ulster to Toulouse. The key is having something to play for in the second leg, to not fret about the score on the night when there are 80 minutes on home soil to problem solve.
“It’s going to be foreign to all 16 teams,” van Graan said about the two-legged nature of these fixtures. “I actually spoke to one or two football coaches, [Because] if you look at the way that football does it, it’s like the end of the game after the first leg is actually half-time. So whether you win or lose, it’s all going to come down to the last game here at Thomond Park in two weeks’ time.”
“It’s a slightly unusual dynamic in terms of the two-leg piece,” agreed Cullen. ”It’s just about getting yourself in position so now it’s just delivering on some of the bigger days, which are the play-off games. We’ve our first play-off game. We want to stay busy.”
Play as well as they did on Saturday and they will be busy throughout April and May, as that performance in Limerick was exceptional, not just from the stand-out stars, Garry Ringrose and Caelan Doris, but also the unheralded players such as Ed Byrne and the soon-to-retire Devin Toner.
“There’s no better place to win than Thomond,” said the 35-year-old Toner afterwards. “To win here is extra special. Probably my favourite place to win I suppose. But you see with that first lineout, I called and called but no one heard because of the crowd. That’s something to be proud of here, the crowd is brilliant. But it’s good to keep them quiet as well, from our point of view.”
From Munster’s perspective, this was a blow, not just in terms of their URC ambitions but also in stripping them of any momentum ahead of their Exeter double-header.
“You’ve got to look at the game the way it is and I felt we weren’t outplayed tonight,” said van Graan. “We were beaten by the better team. Unfortunately if you concede so many penalties [six breakdown penalties contributed to the 11-9 count in Leinster’s favour], the penalties come from pressure.
“Look, you’ve got to give that to them. Their kicking game was excellent. I thought their set-piece was good. We felt actually we did very well in the scrum battle, they won their lineout ball, we lost a lineout in a crucial time.
“That’s the game of rugby and they are currently the best team so we’ve got to be better across 80 minutes to beat them.”
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European Cup New ball game