With the Heineken Cup quarter-finals only a week away, Brendan Fanning evaluates Leinster's win over Munster in The Irish Independent.
"I t was not long at all after the game in January when it dawned on Northampton Saints that they had left something important behind them in Thomond Park. Not the valuables bag under a bench in the dressing-room, rather something more important - out on the pitch. In the history of European competition in Limerick, the home side have only lost once, and to opposition from England's midlands as it happens. Saints, Leicester's neighbours and keenest rivals, had a glorious opportunity to make that a unique English double. The problem was that they hadn't believed.
"Afterwards, their coach Jim Mallinder was positive in his comments about how his team had taken the game to Munster, but he knew they should have taken it away from them as well. And then, when the mist had cleared on the pool stages and Saints had been drawn away to Munster in the quarter-final, the overwhelming feeling was of satisfaction. A chance to go one better.
"With that in mind, Munster needed to send out a message on Good Friday that they were on the right track for next weekend. Jerry Flannery was back, even if Paul O'Connell and Keith Earls were absent, and the atmosphere was at fever pitch. In these circumstances, they needed their out-half to be clear and focused and, with five from five shots on goal, Ronan O'Gara was in the groove. It looked like a personal crusade to win back his Ireland shirt."
RSS feed
