Heading in the right direction

By Donal Lenihan

Monday, October 22, 2012

You know the landscape is changing when Munster have to employ every marketing strategy in the book to fill Thomond Park for a Heineken Cup pool game.

Being offered the dawn shift at 12.45 on a Sunday certainly doesnt help.

After successive road trips to Heineken Cup champions Leinster, RaboDirect champions Ospreys and Racing Metro in Paris yielded nothing in terms of a win, Munster returned to Limerick yesterday hoping to draw strength and inspiration from their spiritual home.

In those circumstances, to finish with a four-try bonus point, Munster are entitled to feel a warm glow after this 33-point win.

While Rob Penney has banned talk of transition in the squad, the fact that Munster finished this game with JJ Hanrahan on the field, along with a whole host of players serving their apprenticeship at this level, does offer hope for the future.

That said, the quality of the opposition has to be put into context before anyone starts getting carried away. For the second week in a row Edinburgh were simply awful. For a side noted for their attacking prowess, going 160 minutes of Heineken Cup rugby without registering a single point, just tells you where they are at present.

Munster were offered a boost before kick-off with confirmation that the visitors try-scoring machine Tim Visser was forced off due to injury along with their out-half kicking ace Greig Laidlaw.

You just wondered where their points might come from. In the end, we didnt even get to find out who their replacement place-kicker was going to be as Edinburgh didnt even exert enough pressure to warrant a single kick at goal.

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Heading in the right direction