Goodman eager to renew acquaintances with Munster a decade on

There was the time Joe Schmidt shunted him into an Ulster game at full-back up in Belfast. Goodman hadn’t repped a whole lot at 15 in a long, long time and so of course the high balls were soon landing, accompanied by the roar of the Ravenhill massive.

“I dropped the first one, I was like ‘f**k it, wow, get back in the front-line asap.’” 

Maybe his best memory is the one outing he managed against Munster, down in Limerick, when his parents happened to be in country. Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll started in midfield but the former only last five minutes and then the call went up.

“It was one of those ones [where] you’re not ready,” he laughed yesterday. “You’re just sitting back watching and then ‘f**k’, here we go!’ Drico actually scored in the last couple of minutes to win the game.” 

Goodman had attended the All Blacks game at Thomond Park as a punter in 2008 so he had been some way prepared for the game itself. He capped his own run out in Limerick in 2013 by staying down the next night and enjoying a few beers.

He’s looking forward to the reunion with Munster at the Aviva Stadium this week, and not just because Leinster, who have welcomed so many of their World Cup contingent back already, may add Robbie Henshaw and Jack Conan to that list at the weekend.

Leo Cullen has taken the squad on the road as part of the club’s mission to spread the blue gospel. Training yesterday was in the SETU campus in Carlow and at Kilkenny College and they stayed overnight in the southeast before a second day’s work and a return home.

The scenery isn’t alone in changing.

Leinster have dominated this rivalry for over a decade now but the last meeting between the sides was Munster’s URC semi-final win at the same Lansdowne Road address last May and Goodman doesn’t deny that this adds to the motivation this week.

“Yeah, we are only on day one [of the week’s prep] but there is a definite edge, probably more so than there has been. Leinster-Munster doesn’t need more [hyping up], but there is still hurt from the end of last year. It’s about making sure we channel that in the right way.

“It’s about this year and the journey and winning week-to-week. It’s an exciting block coming up that we have got, up until December 26th when we play them again. We have got three interpros and two European games, so that’s pretty exciting in itself.” 

There is an acknowledgement that Munster will be better again now that they carry the tag of league champions and a tip of the hat for the manner in which Graham Rowntree’s did it by winning four and drawing one of their last five games, all on the road.

No single change or tweak brought that about but it was interesting that Goodman should pinpoint the role of Denis Leamy, the Munster legend who had worked as skills coach at Leinster before switching back south, as a critical part of their successful run.

“Their defence has been outstanding. They have really made strides there. Leamy has done a great job with them. They hold really good width in their defence, apply really good pressure. They’ve got guys that can put breakdown pressure all over the park – wide breakdown, through the middle of the midfield.

“They have got multiple threats, so carry and clean is going to be critical for us this week to make sure we can get that repeated pressure with ball-in-hand, but being really smart with our kick game as well to change the picture.”