IT WAS THE third quarter, Munster’s lowest-scoring of the match, that gave us a glimpse into the kind of team Clayton McMillan wants them to be.
This period might have been the changing of the game for Scarlets had it not been for Munster’s steel in denying them a score, with the Irish province holding a 13-0 lead into half time.
When they then scored early in the second half, Munster were well on their way to an opening-weekend URC victory, but the work-rate and resilience they showed before the break were as important as any of the attacking flourishes.
They didn’t always defend perfectly but Munster defence coach Denis Leamy can be happy with how his charges limited Scarlets to four linebreaks and also how they scrambled when they were stretched.
In the instance below, a flash of brilliant footwork from Scarlets fullback Blair Murray takes him outside Munster centre Dan Kelly.
Kelly briefly sits on his heels as he tries to read the play and Murray rapidly steps to get outside him.
Suddenly, there’s space for Scarlets to work with. Their wing pair of Ellis Mee and Tom Rogers, the other two paciest, most elusive players in their team are out in the 15-metre channel.
Munster fullback Mike Haley is swinging up and across in the backfield, recognising the danger.
As Murray plays a skillful basketball pass over the head of Munster wing Thaakir Abrahams, it briefly looks like Scarlets will have a good chance of making major inroads up this right-hand side.
But Munster scramble well.
Kelly ends up on his knees as Murray steps outside him.
But his next action is decisive as Kelly bounces back to his feet and sprints hard on a diagonal line back down the pitch.
As Kelly accelerates past loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman in his desperation to catch up, Haley does a typically good job of buying time.
Having initially closed up as he worked across the backfield, Haley now eases off as he appeals for a team-mate to get to his inside shoulder and connect with him.
Haley keeps Mee on his outside shoulder, not giving him an easy break to his inside.
But the Munster fullback still has his shoulders pointed outwards so he can drift onto Rogers if Mee passes.
And Haley backs off a few steps as he gives Kelly every single chance to catch up on his inside.
That’s exactly what happens as Mee decides to dummy and step back to Haley’s inside.
Moving at high speed, Kelly snares the Scarlets wing and forces a knock on.
It’s a great recovery from Kelly, while we can see that his centre partner Alex Nankivell is also working across the backfield in case he’s required to rescue the situation.
At the start of this phase, Nankivell is on the fringe of the far side of the ruck.
In many defensive systems, it wouldn’t be Nankivell’s job to drop into the backfield after the ball has been cleared to the other side of the ruck.
Usually, a defender from the very right edge of Munster’s defensive line would drop into the backfield as Haley worked across with the movement of the ball.
However, in this instance, Nankivell drops off the fringe of the ruck into the backfield and begins working into the space Haley is vacating.
It’s unclear whether Nankivell just makes a proactive decision here or Haley is calling for support – or if Munster are building this into their system – but it’s good work rate from Nankivell.
And so, if Mee had been able to fix Haley and put Rogers away down the right, Nankivell would have had a shot at tackling him.
All in all, this situation gives us a sense of Munster being a team who will work hard and stay composed when they have to scramble defensively.
McMillan’s favourite example – indeed, his moment of the game – came just a few minutes later as Jack O’Donoghue denied the Scarlets what looked like a certain score.
Just a phase before, Munster blindside O’Donoghue has a bite at the breakdown.
While O’Donoghue loses out as Murray drives him clear of the ball, this effort involves expending more energy than simply setting up in the defensive line.
Yet O’Donoghue has to find maximal energy on the next phase as Scarlets break through, Taine Plumtree powering past Loughman’s tackle attempt.
Plumtree draws Munster out-half JJ Hanrahan and returns a pass to fellow back row Josh MacLeod.
Unfortunately for Scarlets, the pass from Plumtree is behind MacLeod and the latter has to slow to collect it, opening the door for O’Donoghue’s work-rate to be rewarded.
O’Donoghue clamps his arms hard into the tackle, bringing a bit of punch into the contact even as he’s diving to make it. That helps him to force the knock on from MacLeod as he looks for the try-scoring pass to scrum-half Gareth Davies.
Still, Scarlets keep the pressure on and Munster have to come up with more defensive grit in the closing minutes of the half.
The Welsh side are hoping to force their way over from a five-metre lineout in the 36th minute only for hooker Niall Scannell to come up with a crucial tackle.
MacLeod shears off to the right of the maul, with blindside flanker Tristan Davies attached to him and hooker Harry Thomas just behind.
If MacLeod can win the initial collision – clearly more likely with Davies latched on – the Scarlets will get a decent chance at trundling to the line and attempting to ground the ball.
But Scannell makes a fantastic impact on MacLeod, driving him infield where the combative Alex Kendellen joins in and helps bring the Scarlets openside to ground.
Scannell is fortunate to avoid a yellow card soon after for tackling in an offside position close to the tryline, but this initial effort shows the kind of grit that McMillan believes is essential if Munster are to be successful.
Of course, there were a few defensive errors that Leamy will have been frustrated with but overall, Munster will be pleased with the character and work ethic that are paramount in defence.
Meanwhile, attack coach Mike Prendergast will have a similar sense of Munster’s first outing of the campaign – some errors but just as much good execution, energy, and intent despite the rain in Llanelli.
There was a crisp simplicity to Munster’s attack, including this first-phase lineout strike in which Nankivell identifies space on the edge of the maul and frees Shane Daly.
Nankivell does a good job of squaring up to attract Tristan Davies out onto him, which creates space for Daly to run into, while the Munster forwards do their part on the other side of Daly.
Even as the ball is cleared away from the maul, the Munster pack are doing their best to tie in possible defenders.
They do a good job of closing off the left edge of the maul, preventing any of their Scarlets counterparts from potentially breaking off and having a go at scragging Daly.
As we can see below, lock Jean Kleyn has rotated up and around that edge, with Loughman driving through behind him.
It’s only a small thing and it’s unlikely anyone would have got from the Scarlets maul to tackle Daly, but it shows good attention to detail in finishing the job as the Alex Codling-coached Munster pack lay the platform for Prendergast’s attack to strike.
It’s worth noting that Codling’s pack delivered a solid lineout performance, losing only one on their own throw and stealing one from the Scarlets. They had just nine lineouts, but Munster will hope to fully resolve the longstanding issues in that area this season.
Casey scored off the back of a close-range Munster maul for their first try, while the Irish province’s forwards battered their way to Tom Ahern’s try in the second half.
Attack coach Prendergast would have been pleased Munster were able to challenge the Scarlets defence with late swings into position – working from tightly-bunched groupings into wider set-ups.
In the example below, Munster have been playing from left to right when they decide to bounce back in the other direction.
We can see that Scarlets’ defence isn’t well organised but Munster are only in the process of organising themselves.
The highlighted group of five players are clustered together vertically in the split second above, but we can see that they’re already in motion to find attacking shape.
Scrum-half Craig Casey hits Loughman, who turns to pass deep to Hanrahan, who sends fullback Haley running into space on his outside shoulder.
Kelly, one of that initial cluster of five players, works hard to swing into a wider position and then he gets an offload from Haley to take Munster in behind the Scarlets defence, which soon infringes. The visitors to kick three points.
Munster’s habit of snapping into attacking shape late and generating width on the move was also clear for Kelly’s second-half try.
Again, in the moment below, Munster look very bunched, with 13 of their players on the left-hand side of the posts.
But with penalty advantage playing, Hanrahan and Nankivell bounce out behind Munster’s forwards pods – sub hooker Lee Barron playing a slick sweep pass to Hanrahan – to get width on the play.
With openside Kendellen’s decoy line inviting Scarlets centre Joe Roberts to bite in, Nankivell is suddenly running into space.
Nankivell’s slick one-handed offload tees Kelly up for a smooth finish.
It was no surprise to see scrum-half Casey having such a big influence for Munster as he captained them for the first time.
The 26-year-old led Ireland’s summer tour to Georgia and Portugal, earning glowing reports, and he is now a confident, experienced first-team player for his province.
Casey has been part of the Munster leadership group since the age of 20 and he looks ready to take on even more responsibility following the retirement of greats like Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray.
If Munster are to have a happy time under McMillan, Casey will be the heartbeat of the team and so, it was an encouraging showing last weekend.
Casey has worked hard to round his game out and certainly isn’t all about playing at high tempo, but that inherent livewire edge he possesses remains a strength that Munster will look to harness.
In the instance above, his quick tap penalty very nearly leads to a stunning Munster try.
Casey has become increasingly confident in his decision-making, as well as clearer with his scanning, so Munster will encourage him to continue looking for chances in the shortside, as below.
In the instance above, Munster have just played off the right touchline but Casey spies an opportunity to immediately go back into the shortside, throwing a delightful bridge pass to wing Shane Daly.
Casey ran nice arcs close to the rucks at other times, tying down defenders before slipping forwards into slivers of space to help them win the gainline.
Speaking of Casey’s bridge pass, it was notable how much more accurate Munster were in throwing passes on the edge against Scarlets.
It was a technical weakness in their game last season, with attempted bridge passes over the edge defender’s head often floating forward or hanging in the air for too long, allowing the defence to catch up. Munster were sometimes let down by more basic catch-and-pass efforts on the edge, undoing good build-up work by failing to nail the last pass.
But there seemed to be an improvement against Scarlets, including for Munster’s eye-catching try early in the first half as out-half Jack Crowley showed how important he will be in this McMillan era.
Scarlets wing Rogers is caught out by the velocity and width of Crowley’s pass in the rain as he fizzes the ball past three team-mates with enough height on it to be out of Rogers’ reach if he goes for an intercept.
Crowley’s pass gives Abrahams the chance to show his remarkable acceleration, which so often takes him beyond his defender. Even if he doesn’t completely break free, Abraham leaves himself in position to keep the ball alive or leave Munster on the front foot.
In this instance, he offloads to Kelly, who finds Crowley, who sends Haley over for a flowing Munster try.
It was another moment that McMillan and co. will pick out as an encouraging sign, even if there will be realism within the Munster squad about their performance. There’s plenty to improve, but many reasons to give them another shot of self-belief.
There was a fresh feel to Munster’s performance in Wales, including how the players opted to stay on the pitch for several minutes after the half time whistle for a debrief before joining their coaches. The local mini rugby players had to set up around them.
This Munster team have to move out of the shadow of great players who are no longer around, so it’s no surprise if they look to do things their own way.
