Cape Town — After pulling off a victory in Cape Town during the regular season of the United Rugby Championship (URC), Munster are confident they can do it again — but this time in a crunch final.
A last-gasp drop goal took them to a 16-15 win over home side Leinster in Dublin on Saturday as both teams threw the kitchen sink at each other looking for a spot against the Stormers.
Munster showed patience and nerves of steel to bag the win and will travel to Cape Town later this month to face the defending URC champions on May 27 at the DHL Stadium after the Stormers beat Connacht 43-25 earlier on Saturday.
Judging by Munster's last performance in the Mother City, and how they successfully shut down Leinster, the defending URC champions will be in for a tough match. Just like Connacht kept the Stormers honest, so will Munster, another team that refuses to go away.
"We go to Cape Town with belief," Graham Rowntree, Munster coach, said on Saturday after his team's win.
"This group won’t give in and we have come through some fires in the last few weeks. We go to Cape Town and it will be our sixth away game on the bounce, and that’s when we are finding out about people.
“Our game is still growing. We are finding out about people. Peter (O’Mahony) spoke really well in the dressing room about this not being our final tonight.
“I said to the group in the week that 25 days ago we were paranoid about European qualification (because of their log position) but then we got to a semi-final, and now we are in a final."
What will boost Munster even further is the fact that they beat Leinster without senior players like lock RG Snyman, centre Malakai Fekitoa and scrumhalf Conor Murray.
All three were instrumental in the win over the Stormers the last time out. They are expected to be fit after being withdrawn from the semi-final due to concussion protocols.
Inspirational captain O'Mahony and lock Jean Kleyn also left the field but it's expected that the week of rest, thanks to the Heineken Champions Cup final this Saturday, will give them enough time to recover for the trip over the equator to the foot of Africa.
IOL Sport