OPINION: How Munster’s Smart Approach Dethroned the Stormers

The United Rugby Championship final battle between the defending title-holders, the Stormers, and Munster proved quite the dramatic encounter, with a much-closer arm wrestle than most fans would like to admit. Looking at Munster’s season, though, it’s not surprising to see that the plucky Irish side was able to eliminate their Cape Town hosts with high-IQ rugby that completely caught John Dobson’s side off-guard.

The most notable curveball was the conditions, and we’re not talking about the weather. While a storm was initially predicted earlier in the week, the chilly but relatively still CT evening proved conducive for some running rugby, but it was the pitch itself that ended up being a wildcard for the match.

With all due respect to the groundsmen and pitch facilitators of the marvellous Cape Town Stadium, the grass has clearly never taken hold on that surface, making sidestepping, changing angles, or getting any real traction almost impossible. Munster knew this, and utilised a short kicking game, putting multiple wiley grubbers and pressure-generating kicks through, that proved to be incredibly difficult for the likes of Damian Willemse, a sweeping Herschel Jantjies, and other Stormers backs to clean up. Using the slippery and unpredictable surface to their advantage, Munster was happy to kick the ball away and hope for some chaos to unfold, which it did.

Munster almost scored a try off a bungled ball clean up if it wasn’t for a small knock-on, but the other key moments in the game came from the Stormers having less-than-effective exits out of their 22-metre area due to kicks retrievals and deliveries requiring a lot more time and effort.

When the Stormers weren’t able to use their dangerous backline to punch holes in the solid Munster defence, they reverted to their driving maul. However, Munster’s own counter-maul was as impressive as ever. The Irish side showed that they know how to kill momentum in any maul during the season, and executed that to perfection once again. The Stormers’ try-scoring opportunities (barring Deon Fourie’s try) from 5-metre lineouts were nullified time and time again, whereas Munster completely steamrolled the Stormers’ maul for their first try via Diarmuid Barron.

While the media buzz of the week was around Manie Libbok, the real stars of the show were the extremely experienced (and always classy) Connor Murray and the young Irish prospect Jack Crowley at flyhalf. The two worked in perfect tandem to deliver a tactical kicking clinic, constantly putting the Stormers under pressure with well-placed kicks, chases, and ambitious cross-kicks, which ended up in a try for Calvin Nash. Even though Manie Libbok was attempting to cover that particular kick, he slipped and didn’t stand a chance (see the above point on the turf).

The final piece of the puzzle was Munster’s physicality. While the Stormers were also praised for their physical game over the season, Munster’s backs and forwards were notched up to 11. A constant barrage at the breakdown seemed to wear down the Stormers’ troops, while massive hits from the likes of Malakai Fekitoa rocked the usually-unshakable Deon Fourie for the remainder of his game.

Of course, one of the biggest factors with finals rugby, is the mentality of either team. Given that it is, well, the final, you tend to have the two in-form teams battling it out, so questioning and assessing the quality discrepancy between the two is sometimes futile. However, there’s no doubt that Munster went in with a bit of an underdog tagline. Leinster has risen to superstardom in recent seasons, leaving their little brother side Munster to be a little bit of an overlooked entity, with not having the bulk of the Irish internationals on their roster and less success in recent times. Munster had a point to prove, a young and hungry side, and the momentum of taking out the unbeaten Leinster outfit two weeks prior — something no other team could do throughout the season.

Fans can lament the Stormers performance, but at the end of the day, Munster simply outsmarted and outplayed them.

Header photo: Facebook / Stormers | In-article photo: Instagram / Calvin Nash