Top-level rugby can shatter dreams as quickly as they materialise. One minute your lifelong ambition of British and Irish Lions selection comes true, the next you are wondering if you will survive the next 80 minutes let alone an entire tour to New Zealand.
Wrapping yourself in cotton wool ahead of a major event is possible in certain sports; for Lions-in-waiting there is no such luxury.
Last time around it was Dylan Hartley whose world disintegrated after he was given a red card in the 2013 Premiership final, his subsequent 11-week suspension offering Ireland’s Rory Best an unexpected reprieve. With just over five weeks still to go before the tourists’ plane takes off from Heathrow, the ultimate rugby experience comes with a “fitness permitting” asterisk. Being dragged off a United Airlines flight would be less galling than a significant injury between now and the end of May.
With eight Lions representatives between them – not counting the sidelined Conor Murray – Munster and Saracens are more vulnerable than most. Sure enough, Peter O’Mahony was forced off prematurely with concussion but, otherwise, a relentlessly physical encounter had no more high-profile casualties. The only visible cotton wool was on the swabs being used by the platoons of physios.
Any notions of self-preservation lasted as long as it took Munster’s forwards to pile into the visitors in the first quarter as if their very lives depended upon it. With the Red Army roaring them on and the blessed memory of Anthony Foley to be upheld this was rugby at its rawest and least comfortable. The Lions tour? Nothing but a tiny speck somewhere out there beyond the fast‑approaching locomotive.
Try telling O’Mahony or CJ Stander to take it easy on such an emotion‑charged afternoon. As Saracens, with four Lions in their front five, found themselves back-pedalling at the first couple of scrums, the point was further reinforced. People also forget the fringe players who could yet end up touring if fate does intervene. A flicker of hope still burns within Donnacha Ryan, Keith Earls, Simon Zebo, Richard Wigglesworth, Sean Maitland, Brad Barritt, Chris Ashton and co, regardless of the perceived odds. As things stand, there is no tomorrow.
By far the best course of action is to concentrate on what can be controlled. For a moment or two Saracens found this difficult, looking uncharacteristically flustered amid the tumult. Most days Wigglesworth would have snaffled Maitland’s inside pass with the try-line beckoning, to his chagrin the ball bounced from his hands.
Jackson Wray’s high tackle on Duncan Williams, immediately after the referee, Romain Poite, had warned Sarries about their discipline, was another example.
If only Munster had possessed the cutting edge to take advantage. Their kicking game had its moments but Williams is no Murray when it comes to landing the ball on a sixpence. There were a total of 48 kicks in the first half, the kind of figure that tells its own story. Both these sides love a Garryowen but it takes more than that to reach a modern European final.
Even the Vunipola brothers could be found putting boot to ball, with more success than some. The game was crying out for someone to inject a bit of class, to do something worthy of a Lion regardless of their tour status. Kruis did his best, surging towards the line only to drop the ball as he stretched out. Munster may have been short of inspiration but they never, ever give up.
Increasingly, though, Saracens’ strength and fitness proved too much. Mako Vunipola’s 54th-minute try gave them breathing space on the scoreboard and the champions are not a side who toss away such advantages in the final quarter. Players such as Barritt particularly relish this sort of contest and there was a certain inevitability about the way his team soaked up the pressure before working their way back upfield to put the replacement winger Chris Wyles over.
If it was a far cry from the majestic play that put Clermont to the sword 46-6 in a semi-final at Twickenham three years ago, no one connected with English rugby will be complaining. Given what has happened recently to the national team and Wasps on this same stretch of grass, this was belated proof it is possible to win big games across the Irish Sea.
That kind of mental fortitude will make Sarries favourites to retain their European crown regardless of their opponents in next month’s Murrayfield final. No one has beaten them in Europe for two years and they are developing a voracious taste for silverware. From Warren Gatland’s perspective, though, the next five weeks will continue to be agony. No one can currently beat Saracens but the big games look set to keep on coming. By the time the Lions line up for the first Test against the All Blacks, it will be staggering if all their key men are still standing.
