Are Munster getting boring?

All the superlatives seem shallow and superficial when you try to describe the magnificent manner in which Munster dispatched a pathetic Sale at Thomond Park on Friday night.
Before Tony McGahan arrived on the scene Munster didn’t do aesthetics. They were good, primarily, at compressing a pitch and referencing every contest with bodily contact - by hunting, shunting and squeezing a team they ultimately examined an opponent’s appetite for a good old fight.
Now though they can play a bit and for that reason they have moved beyond reproach. And, after Friday night, not even the most finicky critic in a television studio could shout “hold it there”, flourish a biro and hold a player to ransom for what he had or rather he hadn’t done.
Better still the demolition of the Sharks has well and truly placed Munster on a pedestal: the greatest club team on this continent - only Toulouse are registered in the same postcode.
Despite a recent blip in form the 37-14 win over Sale secured Munster’s place in the quarter-finals for the 11th successive season - for 11 successive seasons, thanks to an awkward group system, Munster have found themselves in winner-takes-all scenarios and come out the right side of the result.
Some say there’s nothing more boring than perfection. Who wants, they ask, a team to win all the time? There’s a reason, they explain, why sports movies are about disorganised groups of incompetent rejects who find a way to scrape past a vastly superior force at the last possible second - that’s, somehow, more inspiring.
I beg to differ. When David emerges from his corner to face Goliath we all know where we are meant to stand on the issue - roaring the plucky lightweight on as he faces down a 14-stoner across the ring.
But, I ask you, how noble is it to want to see the successful humiliated? Shouldn’t this approach to sport and to life in general be re-thought?
There was a time when Munster rugby was cast in the role of David. There were times when they were as tragic as the Native Americans. Now though they are Goliath and every time they run into David we should be hoping that the little fella’s sling gets shoved where the sun don’t shine!

Brian McDonnell