Mossy Lawler was involved in two 0-3 games against Connacht during his playing career with Munster. He doesn’t expect the team’s United Rugby Championship (URC) meeting in MacHale Park on Saturday (2.30pm) to be another one. They are, he said, different animals now.
“I actually played in two of those 0-3 games. One was in the Sportsground and there was another one in Athlone. Great memories. Both teams have really exciting attacks. I’d imagine it won’t be a 0-3 result come Saturday.”
There is a mixture of excitement and caution in Munster, having lost to Edinburgh and Glasgow (narrowly) in the last two URC matches. The team sit on the table just a couple of points from the top-eight cliff-edge and need an immediate upswing to start movement away from danger.
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But this game should be different. For one thing, there will be 25,000 fans in the Mayo GAA county ground, rather than 4,000 in the Sportsground, Galway. And with international players Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash and Peter O’Mahony returning to the fold, Lawler hopes it will be a charged week in training and that the team will bring a new level of intensity to the west.
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“Of course, to get players back like that and have them hopefully available at the end of the week turns ourselves into a different team,” he says. “But it also raises the levels of training. Competition is everything, so when competition is stepped up, we become a far better team.”
It is a step into the unknown, but rugby is not new to playing in GAA grounds. Leinster and Munster have played in Croke Park. Páirc Uí Chaoimh was the venue when Munster faced Crusaders and South Africa “A”, while Cavan’s ground, Breffni Park, was Ulster’s home game for a pre-season match in 2023 against Glasgow. MacHale Park marks out a growing trend with the full support of both codes.
“We’ll stay in Westport Friday night and we’ll get a captain’s run in MacHale Park on Friday and we’ll be ready to go Saturday,” said Lawler. “Look, you always try to dig into the emotional or the passionate side of things. Connacht is a real community club, with massive buy-in from their supporters all over the province.
“So, to get an opportunity to move the game away from the Sportsground, which is only holding 3,000 to 4,000 at the moment, to go to a stadium to play against Munster where you’re going to get the bones of 26,000 is a no-brainer, I think. Again, it buys into that community spirit, which they’re massive on. The occasion is just going to be huge for the province.”
There is not much the two teams don’t know about each other. Lawler’s first cousin is Colm Tucker and their children are good friends, so there is more than a strictly professional engagement. Former international Tucker is leading Munster while coach Pete Wilkins remains on sick leave.
After his playing career with Munster, Lawler also joined the Connacht Academy as an elite player development officer before joining the senior staff as an attack and skills coach, the job he now does in Limerick.
To add to the changed environment, Clayton McMillan was also part of this week’s equation. The New Zealand coach will take up a three-year contract with Munster when his involvement with the Chiefs and the Super Rugby season ends in July.
“Clayton arrived on Sunday night. He’s here for a week,” said Lawler. “I suppose it’s just a meet-and-greet, see what the club is all about, see what we’re all about.
“At the moment it has all been small talk. We will have our own time when Monday and Tuesday die down a little bit. We will get out our own personal time with him to have conversations about what he sees or what we believe will be out next step.
“It’s a massive effort from the man in relation to coming up from New Zealand during the Super Rugby season. I suppose it just shows his intent in where he wants to go and what he wants to do with the place.”
He won’t, however, stay for the Connacht game as he returns to New Zealand on Friday to prepare for the Chiefs game against the Reds next week in FMG Stadium Waikato. His side currently sit at the top of the table three points ahead of Crusaders.
“The biggest thing that we looked for after the Edinburgh game was a reaction and I think we got that in abundance, intensity-wise, physicality-wise, but we still believe, I suppose we left it behind us,” said Lawler, giving the strong impression that despite the regrets over the Edinburgh game, there is certainty that nothing will be left behind in Castlebar.
