MUNSTER HEAD COACH Anthony Foley says he will continue to back his players to make decisions on the pitch after replacement prop Dave Kilcoyne quick-tapped a penalty that could have given the southern province a draw against Leinster.
Munster lost 16-13 at the Aviva Stadium but forced Leinster to produce a dramatic defensive holdout in the dying moments.
Referee Ian Davies awarded Munster a penalty just to the left of the posts in the final minute, but rather than kick the three points and secure a draw, Munster quick tapped through Kilcoyne.
“You back your players and their actions,” said Foley post-match at the Aviva Stadium. “It’s something that a player thought he could win the game, you know? We’d like to take it back, but you don’t get those opportunities to take it back. It’s unfortunate but we’ve got to live with it.
Players on the pitch… selection is trust, you know? So you trust the players when they’re out on the pitch to make the decision. Sometimes it’ll go for them and sometimes it’ll go against them.
“It was a big one today that went against us.”
Foley’s overall sense after the game was one of dejection.
“Disappointment,” said the Munster head coach when asked to sum up the feeling after defeat. “I thought we had done enough to win the game. We feel it’s one that’s left behind. In a crucial moment of the season to be camped on their line at the end of the game and not to come away with a win or at least a draw, it’s disappointing.”
Foley’s decision to withdraw starting out-half Johnny Holland with a quarter of the game remaining was a contentious one, particularly as the 24-year-old had kicked so well off the tee.
Replacement Ian Keatley took on a testing chance with a penalty from distance just minutes after coming off the bench, missing to the left of the posts.
“Johnny was doing very well,” said Foley of the substitution decision. “I think it was 60 minutes into the game and we had a very experienced international out-half on the bench that has led us for the vast majority of the season.
“With a game as tight as that, you don’t want to be putting on your 10 with five or ten minutes to go; you want to be making that change a small bit earlier.
“Keats got us into a position to win the game, you know? Johnny had done really well up to that point, he’s obviously a very up-and-coming, promising player and he’s at the start of his career I’d imagine.
“We had a very experienced 10 on the bench and it was important that we gave him an opportunity to get into the game and get us into a position to win it, which he did. Unfortunately we didn’t do it.”
Given Foley’s underlining of Keatley’s experience and value off the bench, the Munster head coach was asked why that didn’t make the 29-year-old an automatic starter ahead of the far more inexperienced Holland in what was a huge Guinness Pro12 game.
We felt, rightly or wrongly, that Johnny had a couple of cameos off the bench leading into Zebre,” said Foley. “Keats, in the background, had played a lot of games and I was getting questioned earlier in the season that we were putting a lot of pressure on Keats, so we’ve been working away trying to get Johnny up to speed.
“He got up to speed and we were comfortable with the way he could control a game for us and we thought if you’re going to try a game, you put Conor Murray inside him, CJ [Stander] in front of him, a big pack around him, Rory Scannell and Frankie [Francis Saili] and a good back three.
“It’s important that we felt it was a game we could put him in there. I think it was the right decision. I thought he controlled it at times well. He wasn’t flawless, he made a couple of errors out there, but who didn’t?
“He’s got great character and we would have seen that when he was rehabbing the horrendous hamstring injury he got last season. He’s a player that we like coming through, he’s going to be a good foil for Keats and himself to battle it out for the remainder of the season.
“It’s a good place to be in that sense.”
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