European Semi Final Preview
So Saracens and Clermont Auvergne will face each other on May 13th in Murrayfield after they defeated Munster and Leinster in this weekend’s Semi Finals in Dublin and Lyon. Saracens proved once more why they are so hard to beat in Europe , they are 17 unbeaten now and will really fancy their chances of retaining the title they won in May 2016.
Munster will know that they were well beaten by a team that are now well used to winning tight games at home and in Europe. They lost the set piece battle at scrum and line out and also they were beaten in the tactical kicking battle where Williams and Bleyendaal faced Owen Farrell and Richard Wigglesworth. Munster did dominate possession and territory and even when Jackson Wray was sin binned Munster still could not find a way to unlock the Saracens defence.
It took Saracens 10 minutes to find a way around the Munster defence where only for a Richard Wigglesworth knock on Saracens would have found an early try , then for the majority of the first half both sides kicked away possession and even when Munster did have the ball and kept it in hand they struggled to get any go forward ball , Jaco Taute and Rory Scannell who have been really important in terms of leading the defence and also the attack found it very hard to force home the supremacy that Munster had and Saracens for their part had no real trouble in trying to deal with a fairly blunt Munster attack.
What Saturday really proved to people in how crucial Conor Murray has become for both Munster and Ireland in the past few seasons. Although Duncan Williams has done an adequate job in covering the scrum half position, Conor Murray was really missed and his steady influence at the base of every ruck and scrum was really missed. He has developed into probably the best scrum half in Europe and this summer he will hopefully face Aaron Smith to see who the best scrum half in world rugby is !!
Back to Saturday and Munster will feel extremely disappointed that they didn’t turn pressure into points and make more of the 10 minutes where Saracens had only 14 men on the field. Saracens did very well to disrupt Munster at scrum time and the line out. Maro Itoje and George Kruis defiantly got the better of the Munster pairing Billy Holland and Donnacha Ryan. Saracens scored tries through Mako Vunipola and Chris Wyles.
So after a very workmanlike performance , Saracens found a the winning formula and won the game 26-10 , Munster managed a late consolation try through CJ Stander. Saracens will head to Edinburgh full of confidence after winning away from home in the Semi Final and won’t have any fears of facing Clermont Auvergne on May 13th.
Leinster took on Clermont Auvergne in Lyon yesterday and Clermont made another Final after an extremely close second half where Leinster had to produce another stirring comeback this time from 15-3 down , Clermont started very fast and led 15-0 after 17 minutes also Isa Nacewa was sin binned and it wasn’t until after half time that Leinster managed to mount a comeback , they had a try chalked off when Dan Leavy was found to have not released tackled player and even though he finished the move off , match referee Nigel Owens referred it to the TMO and the try was ruled out.
Gary Ringrose underlined his class by scoring a solo try , it was very much in the mould of his predecessor in the Leinster number 13 shirt Brian O Driscoll. Unfortunately for Leinster the 17 points from the boot of Jonathan Sexton and the Ringrose try weren’t enough to get Leinster into the Final. The performances of Rhys Ruddock and Jack Conan had a major influence in the Leinster fight back.
Ireland did have two teams in the Semi Finals and won’t have any team in the Final but what has been achieved this season can’t be forgotten and after a few campaigns where Ireland couldn’t manage to make the breakthrough but this season has been a watershed for the Pro 12 and I hope they can continue what they started this season next year….
By
Cian Mc Gibney
24/04/2017
