Sporting ‘hatred’ spices up Munster-Glasgow showdown

The fictional crime-fighter Detective Jerry Lynch said: “Hate your opponent, hate him, and you’ll never give less than 100%.”

Colm Meaney’s character in Intermission wasn’t referring to rugby rivalry – his immediate opponent was anyone who failed to share his appreciation of ‘Celtic mysticism’ music, but his “philosophy” rings true, and it informs the narrative for the second of today’s BKT United Rugby Championship semi-finals (6pm).

No one is quite sure when exactly the Munster-Glasgow ‘hatred’ began but Fraser Brown reckons the Irish side took exception to a 51-24 trimming in Scotstoun in 2013.

At that point, Munster, with Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell in harness, were still clinging on to the tail end of the glory days, five years after their last Heineken Cup win and two seasons since ruling the Pro12 roost.

“It was an embarrassment for Munster…and it has become the foundation for the great rivalry,” former Glasgow and Scotland hooker Brown wrote in The Scotsman this week.

Speaking on the BBC, Fraser recalled an incident between O’Gara and Glasgow lock Ali Kellock around the 2013-14 season when the referee had cause to chat to the pair.

“The referee says something like, you are both experienced internationals, you are both captains of your club, and O’Gara turned around and said, ‘well, I am but I’ve no idea who this guy is’,” said Fraser.

“And that [vibe] just started to seep into it.”

Two years later the sides met in a Pro12 final in Belfast and a Munster outfit with O’Connell, in his last game for the province, CJ Stander, Simon Zebo and Keith Earls were no match for the Warriors as they claimed their one and only title of the professional era.

With Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and DTH van der Merwe lighting up Ravenhill, Gregor Townsend’s charges were full value for their 31-13 win.

Four match-ups followed in the 2016/17 season, encompassing two league and two European clashes.

Then-Munster assistant coach Jacques Nienaber (above), a qualified physiotherapist, had been running on and passing on instructions, innovative at the time but now common place.

“That riled Gregor up a little bit,” added Fraser.

One of the meetings that season came days after then-Munster coach Anthony Foley passed away and was an occasion filled with emotion as the Thomond Park faithful mourned their fallen leader.

Earls was sent off early in proceedings but nothing was going to prevent Munster from winning on that day.

“I think [the rivalry] started with the move to their new stadium,” recalled former Munster wing Johne Murphy on this week’s RTÉ Rugby podcast.

“It was guys like Ali Kellock and those, and when they were going after the like of Paul and Donncha [O’Callaghan] and Leams [Denis Leamy], to an extent.

“It just developed over two or three years when Gregor [Townsend] transformed Glasgow into a consistent side who were pushing for semi-finals and finals.

“They beat us in 2015 and the semi-final in 2014.

“There was so much in those games, a lot of verbals, and outside of Leinster at that time it was one of the most intense fixtures that you could play in.

“Particularly in my last three years, you’d look at that and go ‘I want to play in that’.

“It’s just been built up and it’s great to have that spice in it. It’s layered.”

One of those layers, however, came close to crossing the line.

In the aftermath of the January 2017 meeting, Conor Murray claimed that Glasgow players were targeting his standing leg as he delivered his near inch-perfect box kicks, much to their detriment.

“I’m properly p***ed off about that,” he said at the time.

“I don’t see any benefit in charging down someone’s standing leg, I only see it as a danger or as a potential to get injured.

“They did it to us at Thomond Park, they got our scrum-half Te [Aihe Toma] with it in the league game and they almost got me a couple of times.

“Luckily my leg came out of the ground and I managed to fall over, but if my leg stayed in the ground…you’re looking at the cruciate [ligament].

“I’m not blaming the players. I don’t know who told them to do it but it’s very dangerous. They’re the only team I’ve come across that did it.”

In a world of ‘what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch’ those comments were a flat-out accusation of dirty play, way outside the rules of engagement.

Looking back at replays during the half-time analysis of that game, you could see he had a point, while Glasgow, today looking to win their fourth straight semi-final, felt they were well within their rights to put him under pressure.

Either way, it fuelled the fire that raged between the two teams and when Rory Scannell landed an overtime long-range penalty winner in October of 2018 it triggered the rare sight of a mini pitch invasion for a round-seven win at Thomond.

“They were on top of me before I knew it,” smiled the centre (below) in his post-match interview. “There’s great vibes in the dressing room, which is ideal.”

That game was the fifth in a row won by the hosts on the day but the away sides won three of the next four, including when Glasgow won 38-26 in Limerick in March of last year.

“28-0 at half time, wasn’t it? I’ll never forget that dressing room,” Rowntree recalled of the game this week. “It gave us a punch in the nose.”

Sparked by that shot, Munster worked their way into the quarters where, naturally enough, Glasgow awaited in Scotstoun.

The hosts fancied their chances having beaten Munster in their previous two encounters, winning six on the spin in the league and defending a 17-match unbeaten home run.

Munster took an early lead but the turning point came in the 25th minute when out-half Tom Jordan supplied the URC tackle school with a textbook example of ‘how not to tackle an opponent’, failing to dip with a clear line of sight before charging his shoulder into Murray’s head; the scrum-half had to be replaced for a head injury.

Rowntree’s side dug in and dogged out a 14-5 win that set them on their way to subsequent victories against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium and against Stormers in the Cape Town final.

And when Franco Smith’s side, who have never won an away semi-final, weathered the Stormers last weekend, it set the rivals on yet another collision course.

“They hate us,” former Scotland prop Peter Wright, a Lions tourist in 1993, said on the BBC this week, stressing he meant ‘hatred’ in a sporting context.

“Glasgow and Munster hate each other massively, that’s been going on for years and years. It’s not going to change.

“You’ve still got enough of the old Peter O’Mahonys and Conor Murrays, brilliant players and I love to hate them because they are such good players.

“It will be good to go across to Munster and beat them in their own back yard, which I think they can do.”

At the start of the week, Glasgow’s defence coach Peter Murchie offered a toke of a peace pipe in Munster’s general direction.

“You’re actually looking at quite a long time ago now since there was that particular needle,” Murchie told the BBC.

“It’s a big game in its own right, forgetting whatever’s happened in the past. It’s a new set of players, they’re not thinking about those things that may or may not have gone on.”

A nice gesture perhaps, mind games more likely, but the last thing the URC needs is an improvement in relations between the teams.

The Enfield Accord reached between the Leinster and Munster players ahead of the 2009 Grand Slam removed the rancour that ran through those Interpros to that point and robbed a whole generation of the joy that beating a ‘hated’ opponent brings.

“That’s what we want and that’s what the Premiership has in England, more of that rivalry,” said Bernard Jackman.

“Glasgow and Munster have had some phenomenal battles and there is an edge there and we want more of those.”

This game has some mouth-watering individual battles in store and the centre match-up between Alex Nankivell and Sione Tuipulotu is chief among them but who can best channel the intense rivalry into a smart and effective performance will reach next weekend’s final.

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Watch the URC semi-final, Bulls v Leinster from 2.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player,

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