Munster history gives Diarmuid Barron sense of responsibility for Champions Cup trip
Alex Kendellen of Munster, right, celebrates with teammate Diarmuid Barron after scoring his side's third try during the Champions Cup clash with Stade Francais. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
Diarmuid Barron leaned into Munster’s European back catalogue as he explained the current squad’s responsibility to front up at Champions Cup pool rivals Castres this Friday night in France.
A 33-7 bonus-point victory over Stade Francais in Limerick on Saturday night sends the province over to southern France with gathering momentum under interim head coach Ian Costello after a difficult early season as Munster will look to repeat their heroics by the Mediterranean last January when they lowered Toulon’s colours in their third-round pool clash at Stade Felix Mayol.
Yet Barron, the victorious captain and hooker at Thomond Park as Munster opened their 2024-25 account with maximum points, said the expectation on the playing group to win in France has been in place much longer than recent successes, including their January 2022 win on their last visit to Castres.
“I’d say in Munster that attitude changed about 15, 20 years ago when Munster teams first went down there and won games,” Barron said.
“We’ve a responsibility to go down there and bring something back.
“The second you play for Munster in Europe I think there’s an expectation that you’re going to front up and be competitive no matter where you go. That’s the attitude we’ve got to have going down to Castres next week.
“It’s a huge challenge but one that we have to meet head on.”
Barron, 26, had made his Champions Cup debut against Castres at home in December 2021 and was an early replacement for Niall Scannell in the return fixture at Stade Pierre Fabre, when a late Gavin Coombes try and 11 points from the boot of Jack Crowley on his first European start secured a 16-13 win on a bitterly cold Friday night in southern France.
“I think half the pitch was frozen over,” the Tipperary man said. “My memories of it are walking out onto the pitch, into the dugout, seeing Niall go down injured after about five minutes. He continued on for another 10 or 15 and I was on after 20 minutes.
“That was a battle. It was one of my first Champions Cup games and it was such an introduction to what the south of France is all about, not weather wise now but physicality. Like tonight, athletes that are well capable of turning you in the blink of an eye so we’ve got to be all over our own stuff this week because if we’re not we’ll be made pay.”
The physicality of Stade Francais has provided Munster with a good understanding of the task ahead at Castres, Barron said.
“It was a step up in terms of where we were at physically, both sides of the ball. I think the way we generated time in the tackle defensively gave us a great chance to keep going after it and it was made pay in terms of the turnovers we got and the choke tackles we saw.
“That just puts you on the front foot and it makes you feel good in terms of D and gives you a feeling of, you know what, no matter what they throw at us here, we can handle it.”
