THERE’S AN UNDENIABLE edge between Glasgow Warriors and Munster, but as it happens, the Scottish side have played an important part in the province’s revival over the past year or so.
The two clubs go head-to-head in Saturday’s URC semi-final at Thomond Park in the latest installment of what has become a gripping rivalry over the years.
Yet a URC defeat at home to the Warriors in March of last year proved particularly instructive for Munster. On a harrowing night for the province, Glasgow raced into a 28-0 lead by halftime before going on to win 38-26.
The result looked a potentially costly blow to Munster’s top four hopes and was the type of performance that leads to deep introspection. In the wake of that game, defence coach Denis Leamy felt the need to take a scalpel to the defence system he was trying to implement.
From there Munster’s campaign roared back into life, Graham Rowntree’s side travelling to South Africa and saving their season before going on to win the tournament outright. A gritty quarter-final win away to Glasgow was particularly pleasing for Rowntree. Less than two months on from leaking five tries at home to the Warriors, Munster limited their hosts to just five points and booked their place in the semi-finals.
This season they’ve built on that defensive solidity, boasting the best defence in the league across the URC regular season and holding Ospreys scoreless for 76 minutes in last weekend’s quarter-final win.
“It is a mindset, but it’s not as simple as that,” Rowntree says of Munster’s improved defence.
“Indeed, against this team [Glasgow] when they beat us at Thomond last March [2023] we changed and improved our defence in a major way, and that was on the back of Leams, he identified some problems in how we were doing things in defence and we learned a good lesson against these in that game, which stood to us in the quarter final.
“If you think to the quarter final last year, the first 20 minutes, our goal-line stand, I think that won us the game.”
Leamy joined Munster as defence coach in the summer of 2022, having impressed during his work as an Elite Player Development Officer and contact skills coach at Leinster.
A two-time Heineken Cup winner during his playing days with Munster, Leamy quickly impressed his new students with his ideas.
“You need buy-in, and I’m very fortunate,” Rowntree continues. “I’ve got a defence coach that the lads would jump off a cliff for. He’s an excellent coach in terms of clarity, motivation and he keeps things simple.”
“He’s done great work with us,” says backrower Gavin Coombes. “He’s coming in early two days a week and we’re getting extra sessions in tackling.
“Most teams now play very similar systems, there’s obviously some variations. But I think he’s just working with everyone one-on-one on tackle technique and making good points in regards to clips of where we need to be and what we need to do and showing good clips of when we do it well.
“And you know, the presence of the man and the way he speaks, I think everyone can buy into what he’s done with this club and with Ireland and he speaks with such pride, it’s hard not to want to do it for him as well.”
Aggression is a big part of what makes Munster’s defence so effective, with an emphasis on being quick off the line and then working hard to get off the ground and back into position.
There were clear examples of this in Saturday’s defeat of Ospreys, where the visitors’ only points were a converted try in the fourth minute.
The Ospreys looked primed to add to that in the 37th minute but were shut out by some excellent, disciplined Munster defence.
After winning a lineout in the Munster 22, Ospreys were stopped on the tryline before being pushed back to the 5-metre line in what felt like a big momentum shift – Jeremy Loughman making the first hit before Peter O’Mahony and Stephen Archer combine to drive Morgan Morris back.
Struggling to reset, Ospreys – playing with penalty advantage after an infringement at the lineout – are then too slow to recycle the ball as John Hodnett and Sean O’Brien shoot up, Hodnett making an excellent low tackle before O’Brien steals the ball. The play is called back for a scrum, where Munster win a penalty.
That was typical of the pressure Ospreys found themselves under all night.
In the second half Ospreys were largely camped in their own half as Munster’s pressure defence left them with little time on the ball, the home side looking thoroughly comfortable as they defended high up the pitch, drifting up before Ospreys could get their phase-game going.
Tadhg Beirne epitomised that effort – his speed off the line here forcing out-half Owen Williams into a quick pass which Munster easily deal with. Beirne then gets off the ground quickly to make a similar hit moments later.
“I think there’s huge heart and pride for everyone playing in this jersey and lads don’t want to concede, lads don’t want to be the ones to make a mistake and I think everyone’s willing to row in and work as best as we can to try to keep teams out,” says Coombes.
We take huge pride in having that best defense in the league, and when it came to it last year it was a huge part of winning this competition.”
Of course, Glasgow will be expected to ask more questions this weekend. The Scottish side are likely to go after Munster around the setpiece, with the Warriors’ maul one of the best in the league.
When Glasgow came to Cork earlier this season, they spooked Munster by scoring five maul tries despite still ending up on the losing side.
“It’s a huge part of their game. It’s where they get the majority of their tries and momentum,” says Coombes.
“We saw what we did last year but also what happened in Cork. We have to have it nailed on but we have a group of players who are willing to put the time in and put their bodies on the line. It’s a huge aspect of our game.”
“The Cork game back in December [against Glasgow] was a weird game,” adds Rowntree.
“We got a good lesson in terms of our maul defence, changed a few things following that game because they were exceptional that night.
“So their maul, their try-scoring off maul is incredible this year. We’re wary of that.
“We’ve had a few tests there as well. Ospreys away in March, they rolled us over in the maul, if I jump to my area again around the set-piece, the scrum, last week that was another good workout in the scrum with some good moments and we had some learning moments. But we’ll be tested there again by Glasgow.”
Tomorrow, they’ll put those lessons learned to the test again.
