Former Heineken Cup winning flanker Alan Quinlan joined the OTB AM crew earlier today to assess Racing's chances ahead of the Champions Cup final vs Leinster tomorrow and chat about the differences in culture between Racing 92 and his Munster side of the early-to-late 2000's.
When answering Adrian's question on changing the culture of Top 14 sides, he said that French teams often depend more on individual talent rather than an effort as a collective group. Quinlan astutely referred back to his glory days and referenced Munster’s 2006 Heineken Cup win as a point of interest.
"It's risky [on Donncha Ryan leaving for France] because they're a little more laid back. They rely more on individual talent rather than the collective unit.
“We would have won a Heineken Cup in 2006 and we had some world class players for sure but the 22 that went out that day probably weren’t the best 22 in Europe.
"But collectively, we were unbelievably tight. We had that desire, that passion, that work ethic as a group, guys doing the hard yards behind the scenes, squad players who contributed so well and to have that kind of a scenario that’s kind of what we pride ourselves on in Ireland now.
"In all the provinces is that extra work ethic, that sacrifice off the field about not having the nights out, watching your diet, and that culture is still a little bit different [in France].
"Any guy that’s played in France or coached in France will tell you the frustration there about getting guys to do extra stuff, watching videos, analysing the opposition, maybe not going out Wednesday night for a meal and having the few glasses of wine."
Suddenly around the turn of the millennium, Quinlan noted a revolution in the way Munster started to conduct themselves. A lack of results pressure in those pre-professional rugby days certainly helped the club, as he noted.
"There was a lot of us there in 96/97 who at the start we couldn't believe we could win but then we saw a little bit of a chink of light and we said there was a real intrigue as to how we could get better as a group.
We had a little bit of lee-way as regards [to] the expectancy and the pressure to winning, we weren’t expected to win, but we got a little taste of it, particularly getting to that final in 2000 and then we were like well, how do we get better.
"There was a number of guys who were really intrigued and determined to find out, well how can we train harder, how can we get better at our diet, how can we get better facilities, how can we get better coaching."
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