FOLLOWING THE DISAPPOINTINGLY flat end to his illustrious Munster career, Mick O’Driscoll was left to bemoan the mistakes which contributed to a 45-10 defeat to the Ospreys.
The humiliating result sees the the Ospreys march onto the Pro12 final, where (depending on the result of tonight’s game) they could be in line for a repeat of the 2010 final when they defeated Leinster at the RDS.
O’Driscoll was playing in his 207th appearance for Munster at the Liberty Stadium last night. The game proved to be his last as he announced his retirment last month.
Despite taking an early lead and enjoying a decent level of control in the first half, the defending champions found themselves trailing by 13 points at half time after Mike Sherry turned the ball over and simon Zebo slipped while O’Driscoll chased the counter-attacking black jerseys in vain.
“We made way too many mistakes,” the retired second row told the club’s official website, “gave away the ball too easily and you just can’t do that against a quality side like Ospreys.
“The try before half time was a real sickener. Again we were in a good position, six points down pressing inside their 22 and we turn it over and they’re down scoring at the other end.”
O’Driscoll is just one of many who will end an association with Munster this summer as coach Tony McGahan leads the exodus along with centre Lifeimi Mafi.
Understandably disconsolate after the heavy defeat, O’Driscoll could only sum up matters for the southern province by saying:
“Massively disappointing to end our season like this, nothing more to be said.”
