Dazed In The Life

Oh now, today was some day.

It’s not easy to put into words the sense of occasion which was thick in the air at Croke Park on May 2nd 2009. Right from the moment I left my house and boarded a heaving Luas at 2:30pm in the afternoon to the final whistle and subsequent gracious wishes of good luck from many a deflated Munster fan, it was always going to be a special day. An Irish team was guaranteed to reach the Heineken Cup Final; a world record for attendance at a rugby union club match was about to be set; the sun was beaming down; the banter was brisk along Jones’ Road; the talk of revenge for 2006 and two drubbings this season was the spur for Leinster; the defence of their hard-won crown egged Munster on. Before this game began, there was so much to hint at a glorious encounter.

If the early 90s saw Jackie’s army conquer the world in terms of support if not actual silverware, the Golden Generation have certainly made the naughties their own, pocketing trophy after trophy and finally delivering on the years of unfulfilled promise with a Grand Slam this year. We have already been spoilt this year with that historic victory over Wales, but then Munster kept the Magner’s League “in the family” last weekend so the crowd which descended on Croker today were hungry for another display of Irish rugby’s rude health. And boy, did they get it.

The first manifestation came off the pitch. The IRFU outdid themselves with the arrangement of the ticket allocations, the banks of fans arranged in a patchwork around the stands - red, blue, red, blue. It was as dramatic a sight as one could imagine. The stadium was awash with the two colours and with little to no interloping – it seems that Leinster fans have learnt their lesson and tickets will never be allowed to slither south again as happened so dramatically in 2006.

Entering Lansdowne Road’s North Terrace that day, I was blown away by the red invasion, an obvious portent of things to come. Since then, however, Leinster’s season ticket ranks have trebled and the support at matches has become more vocal, more passionate, more (dare I say) Munster-like. I had the pleasure to be part of the small band – about 2,500 – who travelled to Twickenhem Stoop for the gritty win over Harlequins 3 weeks ago and the Leinster travelling support was nothing short of magnificent, singing non-stop, standing for the entire game, drowning out the home support 4 times greater in number. It was as passionate as the team’s defence that day and it was clear that that defence would be necessary again today if Leinster were to overcome the odds against the heavy favourites. However, their 16th man was not going to be found wanting.

10 minutes before kick-off, there were no streams of people coming in through the entrance-ways: The stadium was already full. The roars, the flags waving, the march of the drummers and brass players towards each other – every little detail built up the pre-match atmosphere to an incredible high. We Irish love our sport and we love our all-Irish, inter-parish rivalry more than most. This was it – Dublin v Kerry, Cork v Kilkenny, the arch-nemeses facing up to each other with scores to settle.

But enough preamble. What happened?

Leinster 25 - 6 Munster

Wow.

Now, I did not see that coming. No one did. Not even Michael Cheika’s most orgiastic of wet-dreams could have sprung this fantasy. Not even the most die-hard of Leinster fans – and those who thought that they could even win were few and far between, many dreading another Munster steamrolling – could have envisaged a display like today’s.

This was one of those matches which simply pulsated from start to finish, dragged every watching soul around in the mud behind it, shoved their heads underwater for unfeasibly long periods of times and flung them, gasping for air, miles skyward with no inkling of when they might land. There was the underlying edge, the extra intensity local rivals feel when pitted together. There was the O’Connell over O’Driscoll Lions captaincy call. There was the memories of the clash at Lansdowne Road. The context was matched by an awesome game, full of hard running, hard tackling, hard yards and hard luck.

The scoreline is misleading. Munster battered at Leinster’s defensive line all day, dominating the lineout, retaining possession like a sponge retains water, recycling and recycling like a crazed Green Party member. The offloading, the pick-and-go, the abrasive backline – Munster at their aggressive best were certainly there. The thing is, the unstoppable force met an immovable object in the Leinster team. The defence against Harelquins in that second half, as wave after wave of attack was weathered, was surpassed in this performance. The entire team made itself felt. There were superb try-saving scrags by Luke Fitzgerald and the man-of-the-match (although officially it was O’Driscoll, I don’t know that anyone would argue against this) Rocky Elsom. Gordon Darcy was out to prove a point to the Lions selectors and certainly delivered his best game in 2 years. Chris Whittaker and Felipe Contempomi, before his sad exit, controlled the game and were unforgiving in defence. Jennings, Heaslip, O’Kelly, even Stan The Man delivered his finest display in the blue.

Brian O’Driscoll was, of course, at his peak. The man is, without doubt, a rugby legend. Two years ago he was being written off – no pace, missing tackles, poor kicking, blah blah blah. Over the hill, they said.

Well, what do they know? Sweet F. All it would appear. Paul O’Connell might be the Lions Captain, and maybe deservedly, but come the IRB Player Of The Year Award, I would be handing the trophy to O’Driscoll right now. He has been simply superhuman this year. He is as wily as he ever was – think of his line-breaking try against France, his chip, chase, gather and near-try against Harlequins, his brilliant pass to Nacewa to set up Darcy’s first try. He is the hardest tackling, hardest rucking back in world rugby bar none, worth two number sevens. He has lost some of the extra muscle which he never needed in the first place and burst away from the entire Munster team to score Leinster’s third try today. He is a Grand Slam winning captain, an exceptional captain and, should he cap his list of honours with a Heineken Cup and a Lions Tour win, he will be safely enrolled as Ireland’s greatest ever player. He is already Leinster’s. God Bless BOD.

Leinster scored two excellently-worked tries apart from Briano’s breakaway, the backline rediscovering its seemingly misplaced spark, and credit to Alan Gaffney. Munster’s backline is, without question, far better than it was in 2006, and Keith Earls and Doug Howlett always threatened, but Lifemi Mafi did Leinster a bit of a favour with his incorrigible tendency to step back inside today. Facing a midfield of Gordon Darcy and Brian O’Driscoll, Mafi thought his best bet was to continually charge at them. Grist to the mill, Lifemi.

The battle of the outhalves didn’t materialise as people had expected with Dr. Phil leaving the field after he contributed one peach of a drog-goal. Instead, it was left to his replacement, Jonathan Sexton, a player who has occasionally flattered to deceive, to give the performance of a lifetime. Jonno was excellent, directing the game like O’Gara himself, kicking well, passing swiftly, making good, clear calls. We may at last have a successor to the Irish number 10 shirt. O’Gara was quite muted all day, bearing the brunt of several attacks down his channel and hustled all day by Shane Jennings. 

Back in November, when Munster humbled Leinster at the RDS 18-0, I told Brian Roche, a Munster friend of mine, that I fel that the result would have been the exact opposite had Leinster had O’Gara. I simply didn’t feel the gap was that wide. A few weeks ago, Munster pasted Leinster, again without Leinster playing all that badly. There was still something missing. Today, finally, Les Bleux found it. I’m not going to say it was passion because, contrary to what many observers might say, I think this is a Leinster team which has had a drive about it for some time but not always the execution. Certainly, the defeat in Lansdowne in 2006 has been a catalyst for the new, improved Leinster.

No, what Leinster found today was something like the Cowardly Lion’s courage. They had it all along, they just needed to see that. The Munster Men have been at the top of the game in Ireland for so long. Leinster has been slow to grow, always that step behind. They needed to stop asking why this was so. They needed to stop questioning themselves. They needed to realise exactly how good they were – not in a self-congratulatory way, but as part of thinking and playing like winners. Winners – like Munster – don’t EXPECT victory. They demand it. It is not to be granted, it is to be grasped. Leinster, as players, are not inferior to Munster, but as a team in the past errors and inconsistencies have let them down. Today was a perfect 10 display. There could be hardly a fault picked out in Leinster, apart from some poor lineout work.

And what a great thing it is too. Munster have bred this monster which ate up their Heineken Cup hopes this year. Their success has demanded that Leinster raise their game. The Munster ethos which has permeated to the national team also bled into the Leinster psyche. Today was the denoument. There would be no point in Munster dominating Irish and European rugby – we NEED Leinster to emulate them. The path they have trampled down is the one which Leinster have taken. Success breeds success as they say, and often it is the success of your rivals which inspires ones own triumphs – look at the English teams in the Champions League since Liverpool’s win in 2005. Brian O’Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey, Shane Horgan and others must have been green-eyed as they witnessed Munster taking home two European Cups. That can only have been the basis for the drive in the Leinster team today.

There is nothing better than watching two teams play a great game of rugby. One thing which is better though is watching two teams play a great game of rugby in a great setting with two great sets of fans and one great rivalry behind it all. Ireland should be so proud of its rugby players. The whole country has suffered the highs and lows with Munster, loving their passion and prowess unconditionally. Today, we saw first-hand the fruits this love has borne – a second, great rugby team which, with the sort of will and vigour and great skill we saw today, is worthy of such love too. It will be a love hard-earned but much deserved – Munster had to endure 2 lost finals, Leinster finally won a semi-final today at the fourth time of asking. And what a great feeling it would be for Munster’s crown to pass to the heads of Leinster on May 23rd. It would be hard to top today, but that might just do it.