Sean Farrell reports from Stade Pierre Fabre
NOT FAR REMOVED from the chaos of the pitch invasion that followed the fiery match on a dirty night in Castres, it took a fair bit of effort to glean a positive outlook.
A look at the standings helped, with Munster perched top of Heineken Champions Cup pool 2. Yet as their three rivals line up within four points after the 13-12 loss, it’s easy to ponder on what might have been.
“It probably is,” says Peter O’Mahony after being asked if the losing bonus point is any consolation after the gruelling battle. But his frustration was evident as he turned his ire to Munster’s performance.
“I don’t think we played well enough. Again, our breakdown was very poor. That’s really the heart of the game. We were beaten there across the board.
“I don’t think we can have argument with regards to the result. I don’t think we deserved to win. There’s plenty of inaccuracies that we need to have a look at.”
Munster’s scrummaging was once again the pride of the province’s work. But the combination of being whistled off the breakdown and thwarted at the line-out served to nullify any solid footing and brought about Munster’s first try-less European performance since a December 2015 round 4 loss to Leicester in Welford Road.
“If you don’t make sure to look after your possession or set-piece, “you are going to get the tail-end of it,” says CJ Stander.
We made it difficult for ourselves in this pool. It was always going to be that way, but we could have made it easier for ourselves.”
Just as the likely punishment in store for clear contact with the eye area of Chris Cloete will feel a little too late, the inaccuracies and missed opportunities will linger on as a nasty sting. Joey Carbery and Conor Murray missed four kicks at goal between them – none of them straightforward, but all kickable by their standards – and any one of them would have made all the difference.
A try, a nose in front would have been invaluable.
The pool could have a very different complexion had Munster been able to retain possession after Murray’s break and Rory Kockott’s sin-bin on the stroke of half-time, or had Benjamin Urdapilleta not been permitted to slide feet-first into Andrew Conway to force the wing to knock-on after his excellent second-half chip and chase down the right flank.
In a bear pit in politically-riled France, you need a lot of luck to make decisions go the way of the visitors.
“Regardless of the breakdown we had enough opportunities to get some more points on the board and we didn’t,” said Johann van Graan, “well done to Castres for winning by one point in a really intense game of rugby.”
The South African looks to the wider pool picture with a positive hue, but standing in a warm-up room of Stade Pierre Fabre, defeat is an open wound.
“(A) big lesson learned last year in the Racing game, that one bonus point made a big difference at the end.
“Very disappointed that we lost this game. We knew it was going to be a battle and a battle it was, I think two teams that really wanted to win.
I guess the frustrating thing is we created enough opportunities. Small margins in sport, you score that try, you win and it’s a different ballgame. But, you know, we didn’t win the game so that’s not good enough.
“Going back to the bonus point, we’ll take it. We’re still three points ahead of Castres and four (ahead of) the two opponents that we play. So the Gloucester and Exeter games will be massive and so will the Gloucester-Castres and Exeter-Castres games.
“I think that’s the beauty of Europe and pools. It’s a pretty tight pool and four teams are still in it with two rounds to go.”
Van Graan did warn that the quarter-final race could come to this. When most of us drew a line through Exeter Chiefs’ hopes after a draw and two losses, the head coach wouldn’t demote them from being a live threat. And now, should they beat Castres in Sandy Park, they can go to Thomond Park for a grandstand finish to a pool where second place almost certainly won’t be enough to reach the knock-out stage.
“I said last week, a lot of people said Exeter were out, and they’re definitely not out.
“What you learn in Europe is that it goes down to that last game and before we get to that we’ve got Gloucester away and there’s three inter-provincial derbies in front of that game.
“So it’s going to be a balancing act in the next few weeks to alternate your squad according to the IRFU player management, we’ve got to rest certain guys.”
A late flight out of Toulouse means the southern province effectively have a five-day turnaround before travelling to meet their rivals in the north. So the likes of Peter O’Mahony, CJ Stander, Conor Murray and Joey Carbery may have to wait before getting a chance to vent the frustrations of the weekend. Leinster at home should do.
“We are (top of the pool), we still are and that’s where you want to be,” says O’Mahony, “it’s an incredibly competitive and difficult group and the last two days have blown it open again.
We had an opportunity to really get a hold of it and grab it by the neck. We weren’t good enough to do it.
“It’s going to be two huge games in the Christmas inter-pros.”
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