WITH EIGHT MINUTES to play at the Stade Felix Mayol, Munster led Toulon by a point.
What looked a highly unlikely comeback win was on the cards after the province hit their hosts for two quickfire second-half tries, Jack O’Donoghue and Tom Farrell both crossing in a frantic end-game, with Jack Crowley converting one of the two scores from the sideline.
Munster were holding off the French side with a mammoth defensive effort, but with five minutes remaining Pierre Mignoni’s men got the break they needed, referee Karl Dickson awarding a penalty which saw fullback Marius Domon land the decisive score.
Munster were clearly unhappy with the decision, the call going Munster for “taking the space” at the breakdown as Beirne hovered over the ball.
The province left Toulon with a losing bonus point, thanks to a big defensive play by Crowley and Ruadhan Quinn at the death, but they’ll fly home wondering what might have been, even if they were somewhat reluctant to criticise the call post-game.
“Look, you’re in a tackle and he’s saying “release him” but like you can’t just get out of the way of them,” said Beirne.
“But there’s no point in arguing because once the decision is made, the decision is made. We may agree or disagree, whatever, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. It’s not the reason we ended up losing the game.”
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“Look, that’s a world-class referee there and you pick those guys to make the key calls,” added Munster head coach Clayton McMillan.
“He’ll be the one that will go away and review it and make his own decision around whether it was right or wrong.
“There were a couple of other penalties that we gave away further up the field, especially from kick-offs that I think were unnecessary and they just released the pressure valve. We’ll always turn the attention in on ourselves first and those were a couple of areas where we need to be better.”
Munster captain Tadhg Beirne. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Overall, McMillan was proud of the fight his players showed as they frustrated Toulon in a forgettable first-half, before trading blows across an exhilarating second 40.
“Yeah, really proud. I would have been disappointed if we didn’t go down fighting or just fire a shot after last week (losing away at Ulster). It was a massive disappointment from everyone in our camp. We know we’re much better than that, and it was a lot better. We saw a lot better out there today and it’s a tough place to come and play.
I thought the attitude of the guys all week has been first class and as a result, we gave ourselves a chance, and that’s all we can ask for.
“We probably left a few points out there in the first-half, but you’ve got to be good enough on these days to take those.”
Munster will now turn their attention to a home meeting with Castres, where the province could be facing a shortage at scrum-half.
McMillan confirmed Craig Casey is set for a scan on a shoulder injury that was cause for concern post-game, while before kick-off, Munster had to pull their replacement nine, Paddy Patterson from the bench, with Ethan Coughlan taking his place. Tom Ahern also dropped out of the matchday 23, replaced by Ruadhan Quinn.
“Tom Ahern got an injury to his neck in some lineouts,” McMillan said.
“Diarmuid hurt his knee and then Craig Casey’s got a shoulder which looks reasonably serious. So haven’t had the full diagnosis but he’s a bit of an Energizer bunny, so he’s showing good form in there at the moment, but we’ll get a scan. We’ll have a good look and see what the impact is as well.
“He (Patterson) took a bang in the warm-up, just ran into one of our big forwards. He’s had a couple of bangs to the head, and he didn’t feel well.”
In better news, Jean Kleyn and Oli Jager could both return for Castres.
“He ran around in Friday’s training run,” McMillan said of Kleyn. “He’s just wasn’t good enough to be a realistic option to be playing but we’re pretty confident he’d be all right next week.
“It was just precautionary (with Jager), that we just give him another week of contact training. He’s fit and ready to go. All things going well he’ll get out there next week and, you know, it’ll be great for him.”
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Casey injury a concern as late penalty call frustrates Munster
WITH EIGHT MINUTES to play at the Stade Felix Mayol, Munster led Toulon by a point.
What looked a highly unlikely comeback win was on the cards after the province hit their hosts for two quickfire second-half tries, Jack O’Donoghue and Tom Farrell both crossing in a frantic end-game, with Jack Crowley converting one of the two scores from the sideline.
Munster were holding off the French side with a mammoth defensive effort, but with five minutes remaining Pierre Mignoni’s men got the break they needed, referee Karl Dickson awarding a penalty which saw fullback Marius Domon land the decisive score.
Munster were clearly unhappy with the decision, the call going Munster for “taking the space” at the breakdown as Beirne hovered over the ball.
The province left Toulon with a losing bonus point, thanks to a big defensive play by Crowley and Ruadhan Quinn at the death, but they’ll fly home wondering what might have been, even if they were somewhat reluctant to criticise the call post-game.
“Look, you’re in a tackle and he’s saying “release him” but like you can’t just get out of the way of them,” said Beirne.
“But there’s no point in arguing because once the decision is made, the decision is made. We may agree or disagree, whatever, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. It’s not the reason we ended up losing the game.”
“Look, that’s a world-class referee there and you pick those guys to make the key calls,” added Munster head coach Clayton McMillan.
“He’ll be the one that will go away and review it and make his own decision around whether it was right or wrong.
“There were a couple of other penalties that we gave away further up the field, especially from kick-offs that I think were unnecessary and they just released the pressure valve. We’ll always turn the attention in on ourselves first and those were a couple of areas where we need to be better.”
Overall, McMillan was proud of the fight his players showed as they frustrated Toulon in a forgettable first-half, before trading blows across an exhilarating second 40.
“Yeah, really proud. I would have been disappointed if we didn’t go down fighting or just fire a shot after last week (losing away at Ulster). It was a massive disappointment from everyone in our camp. We know we’re much better than that, and it was a lot better. We saw a lot better out there today and it’s a tough place to come and play.
“We probably left a few points out there in the first-half, but you’ve got to be good enough on these days to take those.”
Munster will now turn their attention to a home meeting with Castres, where the province could be facing a shortage at scrum-half.
McMillan confirmed Craig Casey is set for a scan on a shoulder injury that was cause for concern post-game, while before kick-off, Munster had to pull their replacement nine, Paddy Patterson from the bench, with Ethan Coughlan taking his place. Tom Ahern also dropped out of the matchday 23, replaced by Ruadhan Quinn.
“Tom Ahern got an injury to his neck in some lineouts,” McMillan said.
“Diarmuid hurt his knee and then Craig Casey’s got a shoulder which looks reasonably serious. So haven’t had the full diagnosis but he’s a bit of an Energizer bunny, so he’s showing good form in there at the moment, but we’ll get a scan. We’ll have a good look and see what the impact is as well.
“He (Patterson) took a bang in the warm-up, just ran into one of our big forwards. He’s had a couple of bangs to the head, and he didn’t feel well.”
In better news, Jean Kleyn and Oli Jager could both return for Castres.
“He ran around in Friday’s training run,” McMillan said of Kleyn. “He’s just wasn’t good enough to be a realistic option to be playing but we’re pretty confident he’d be all right next week.
“It was just precautionary (with Jager), that we just give him another week of contact training. He’s fit and ready to go. All things going well he’ll get out there next week and, you know, it’ll be great for him.”
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