IAN COSTELLO FELT Northampton Saints were deserved winners at Franklin’s Gardens after watching his Munster team come out on the wrong side of a nine-try Champions Cup thriller.
The win saw Northampton wrap up top spot in Pool 3 and while Munster showed plenty of heart to keep in the contest right to the end, the Munster interim head coach was clearly frustrated with what he felt was a disappointing team performance.
The visitors led by three points at the break but came under pressure after half-time, with Gavin Coombes yellow-carded late in the first half and Northampton turning the screw across the third quarter.
“To be fair I think they deserved it,” said Costello.
“I think they capitalised really well on the yellow card that period just before and after half time. They scored 12 points, and we struggled to get our hands on the ball in the third quarter and we knew that was going to be really important.
So I suppose it gave them a lead, we got close enough in the end but I think bottom line is we weren’t good enough tonight and didn’t deserve to win it.”
Munster saw plenty of ball in the first half but were left frustrated by a series of unforced errors. For the second week running their handling let them down, while there were also issues at the lineout and breakdown.
“There was actually a bit of a mix. Handling errors and probably breakdown, I think they counter-rucked really well, some of that is down to our habits, some of it is how we present the ball.
“So I think there was a bit of a mixture tonight and a key part of our game plan was keeping the ball because they’re so good and they’re so dangerous attack-wise and we didn’t do that to the standard that we needed to do it tonight.
“The big thing was that third period. They were really good ball in hand, we were inaccurate, gave away a couple of penalties that allowed them go deep into our line. They were lethal as we know off strikes. When you give them that much field position through our own inaccuracies that’s what’s going to happen.”
Munster had hoped to get a big energy lift from their bench but Costello felt that impact was hampered by the momentum Northampton enjoyed across a dominant start to the second half.
“We got a huge bounce off the bench last week, bringing four subs on, we were looking for the same impact today,” he added.
“Probably got disrupted with Gavin getting sin binned and we looked to get the four of them on with Gavin, looking for that swing in momentum. We didn’t quite get it. To be fair to them, I though the next 10 minutes they were really strong. We struggled to get our hands on the ball, when they’ve got that much ball they’re a very, very dangerous side.”
Despite the disappointment, Munster also played plenty of good rugby in Northampton, led by an excellent performance from Jack Crowley at 10.
The province are safely through to the round of 16 and will learn their destination tomorrow. They currently sit second in Pool 3 on 12 points, with Saracens (10 points) at home to Castres (9pts) tomorrow.
Crowley’s my 10 for game 1 anyway
Brilliant game. Munster a bit unlucky
@Noel Lillis: the Coombes YC summed up our luck. The initial tackle was ok but his arm slipped off the ball to make it a high tackle. Very innocuous but we were in a warming.
@Michael Corkery: luck had nothing to do with it. Quality is not there. Too many execution errors, tries were conceded too softly. Northampton didn’t have to work hard enough for scores. Poor discipline etc. Leinster would put 40 points on that Northampton team.
@Brendan Crowley: Just like they did last May?
@Niall Boyle: No, now. Last May isn’t relevant.
@Brendan Crowley: well we did score 32!!?
@Michael Corkery: Though it was very harsh especially in view of some hits on our 9s one of which on Murray led to one of those scores. Also felt POM should have been replaced earlier by Ahern who could have moved to lock when Wycherley was taken off. Kleyn’s physicality badly missed imo
@Brendan Crowley: hypotheticals aren’t relevant either.
@Brendan Crowley: Oh, shut up. What have Leinster got to do with it?
@Paul Kennedy: calm down chief. Just offering an opinion. No need to get emotional.
I feel for some of the Munster team who play their heart out every game… At the same time their are a couple of players are well past their sell by date and I feel there lies the weakness in the Munster team… Again I’ve said this before we’d be better offloading and playing youth at least we could see roots been formed… for entertainment it was a great advert for the competition.
Defense the big problem again today, 5tries conceded u stand no chance of winning any game, 5th one was far too easy, the one before half time was the killer tho
@astnasquare: for me it was less defence and more the discipline. We gave far too many away. Gave saints points and territory. Thought the defence was largely reliable. Snipes around the ruck made ground, but we’re not as damaging compared with our last encounter with Saints.
Was at the game (and haven’t watched back on TV yet) so the following is impressionistic.) A lot of things were not good for Munster – I won’t list these as it makes the post too negative. However I came away sickened that they weren’t able to turn the game into a win at the end after Crowley’s break-out. That they were still in the game I put down to top top performances by 3 guys who deserve to start against England on this form – Crowley, Beirne and Nash: plus brief periods of good interplay by the team as a whole. Also the scrum was pretty good, on the whole
@Kevin Ryan: I would agree with you – it is an objective assessment. Trouble for Munster is that there is nothing more at the moment who challenge for a place in starting 23. Ahern, Gleason, Edogbo will feature in furture – O Connell & Kendellen may emerge also. A few more barren years I think in the interim.
@JJB: I think Casey was the form SH before his injury and would certainly have been in the 23, if not the 15. Actually I think it’s the light at the end of the tunnel, but Munster have to keep developing young players and keeping them fit. I’d also namecheck Hodnett (as back-up/successor to JVDF) and BOC as someone who might be a big star, (or might not make it at all). (I was looking at the Irish side that beat Scotland at the start the 2014, when Ireland were ranked 7 in the world. Only 3 Munster players in that 23, and 2 of those were POM and CM. There was a very long period of not finding good enough young prospects, and bringing them through and keeping them fit remain challenges)
I thought that you were not allowed take out the scrum half at ruck time x2 !!!
They should doc wages for every knock-on.
They did deserve to win this one though, the sinbin cost them dearly
All I can say is Northampton must be some bad team.If Munster is as bad as some of your comments ,, and This Great Northampton team could only win by 2 points
We’re not good enough ,end of story. Dropped passes ,missed tackled, silly penalties every week. No more excuses
Probably lost it in the first half with so many unforced handling errors. Can’t get away with it at this level. Still tho I thought Munster played quite well and Jack is putting up a fight for that Ireland starting jersey which is great
Too many silly penalties yet again that allowed them easy access into our 22