“True success is attained through the satisfaction of knowing you did everything within the limits of your ability to become the very best that you are capable of being. Success is not perfection. You can never attain perfection as I understand it. Nevertheless, it is the goal. Success is giving 100 per cent of your effort, body, mind, and soul to the struggle. That you can attain. That is success.” - John Wooden
The improbability of Munster’s United Rugby Championship (URC) victory in Cape Town is what has already made it so celebrated.
Barely six weeks ago, there was no guarantee that the province would even qualify for next season’s Champions Cup. And had that come to pass, no doubt there’d have been copy aplenty – and justified too, let’s face it – that this marked Munster’s lowest competitive ebb since the dawn of the professional era.
In the ‘regular’ season, there’d certainly been signs aplenty that Graham Rowntree and his new coaching team had a better handle on the squad’s capabilities than anything produced under Johann van Graan’s watch. Yet the big domestic tests, home and away to Leinster and both Champions Cup meetings with Toulouse, had ended in defeat.
Slow to rise from the blocks at the outset of the campaign – both pre-season fixtures at Musgrave Park ended in defeat and were followed by just two wins from the opening seven URC outings – fears of missing out on the Champions Cup were hardly alarmist.
But victory over the visiting South Africans before a huge Páirc Uí Chaoimh gate, followed by back-to-back wins over Connacht and Edinburgh certainly steadied the ship and altered the mood.
The last gasp, one-point win in Ravenhill on New Year’s Day, six days on from that one-point reversal to Leinster at Thomond Park, already feels like a more significant success now than it did at the time.
And given the hard work that was ultimately made of edging past Scarlets on March 3rd by seven points having led by 28 at the interval, followed by a deflating defeat to Glasgow three weeks later, nerves remained frayed.
The first of six successive matches on the road, the 50-35 Champions Cup Round of 16 defeat to the Sharks, even allowing for Durban’s heat and humidity, was another massive disappointment. But RG Snyman, bedeviled by injury since joining the province, made his first Champions Cup start that day and ultimately would play his own part in the remarkable sequence of results that followed.
The April 15th win over the Stormers (26-24) which secured Munster a URC play-off spot was succeeded by a thrilling comeback against the Sharks, earning a 22-22 draw having trailed by 16 points at half-time. Munster’s eighth win from 11 URC matches suggested a welcome turning of the tide but the trip to Scotstoun against a Glasgow side unbeaten at home all season, still felt like a very tall order.
But tries from Malakai Fekitoa - who has finished the season like a locomotive - and Antoine Frisch, both converted by Jack Crowley, secured a 14-5 win to set up a semi-final in Dublin against double chasing Leinster.
Having won only once in their 13 previous Aviva Stadium meetings (and just twice in their previous 11 encounters), once again, Munster faced the lengthier odds. However, the improvements in both fitness and defence which Graham Rowntree had demanded of his charges, added to a clearer, coherent offensive approach and Munster’s traditional spirit and doggedness, proved pivotal. Jack Crowley’s late drop goal turned the tide red to secure a famous 16-15 win over their greatest rivals.
"It’s hard to put into words, we looked at it through Munster eyes in terms of taking their points - not for this team” said former Munster lock Donncha O’Callaghan following the full-time whistle.
"They found a new way, they wanted to go win this game and every moment within that led to that last moment with Jack Crowley. There are times you need a player to step up and there’s probably been a void for a while but just the liathriódi to stand in the pocket and knock it over the bar.
"Of course, Leinster were missing players but Munster can only play what’s in front of them. I’m so proud of not only the result but the performance. This Munster team, as Graham Rowntree said, is growing. They’ll actually look back on that and see ways they can improve. It was fantastic."
Rowntree perfectly captured the mood of the camp in his own post-match assessment. “We’re in a final. I said to the group in the week, 25 days ago, we were paranoid about European qualification. Now we are in a semi, now we are in a final.
“Our game is still growing. We are finding out about people. Pete (O’Mahony) spoke really well in the dressing room about this not being our final tonight. We go down to Cape Town with belief.”
He added: “I have seen tangible improvements in our game. I saw that when results weren’t going our way back in the autumn. I had full belief in what I had seen being done in training and the connection the lads had with the coaches.
“We are here to win, aren’t we, in this sport. And to get to this far, and to get to a final, we will be gunning for it.”
Which brings us to yesterday in Green Point on a bog of a pitch before a partisan 55,000 crowd. Munster and the Stormers served up a decider brimming with the sort of horrifying, energy-sapping exhilaration that only a top ranking sporting occasion can manifest.
The visitors ought to have been further than 12-7 ahead at the break such had been their dominance of territory and possession. The defending champions’ early try, scored and converted by Manie Libbok, arose from an intercept and owed more to alertness on Libbok’s behalf than any structured ingenuity.
Munster’s response was magnificent. Urged on by a fantastic travelling support, they made light of that early setback and could have been ought of sight by half-time, having had three tries scratched off on review – with Gavin Coombes’ alleged double movement still unsighted.
Diarmuid Barron’s crossing the whitewash after nine minutes was thankfully undisputed by the officials with Calvin Nash, following a superb cross-field kick by Jack Crowley, adding a second in the 28th minute. Crowley converted to send Munster five clear at the interval.
The second half proved a more even affair all the more nerve-shredding for it as the Stormers grew in confidence. Just two minutes after Mike Haley’s sin binning, Deon Fourie’s try brought the holders level. Libbok converted to send the Stormers two points clear – the most dangerous lead of all in the union game.
Tension and patience went hand in hand for the remainder of this final. But not for the first time during this remarkable late season surge, Munster’s coolness and structure prevailed.
The build-up to and ultimate execution of John Hodnett’s title-winning try was magnificent; the sum total of a season’s endeavour under Rowntree, Denis Leamy and Mike Prendergast. To bridge the 12-year wait for a trophy given the improbable odds Munster have faced since securing their play-off spot is why this success will resonate.
A season which began so disjointedly has ended with Munster finding a way to win in the most unlikely of circumstances – and then repeating the trick. It’s as heroic as sport can get. A wonderful night half the world away that will be long remembered. Bravo, Munster. They’ve found their way again.
“Stand up and fight until you hear the bell…”
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