MUNSTER HEAD COACH Johann van Graan believes confusion over a key decision played a vital role in his side’s 25-10 defeat to Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun on Friday night.
Referee Ben Whitehouse thought he spotted, out of the corner of his eye, a potential offence by Glasgow co-captain Callum Gibbins as Munster were hanging on against a barrage of attacks.
When play did eventually stop, with Glasgow earning a penalty, the broadcasters, however, could not find the incident for him to rule on.
After a lengthy delay while he was shown a number of irrelevant rucks but not the important one, Whitehouse felt he had no option other than to continue with the game.
Disciplinary officials may get a better look at it this week, though that is too late to do Munster any favours.
“That was a big turning point in this game,” van Graan said, obviously feeling Gibbins’ clear-out at a ruck could have warranted a red card.
“The numbers could have been a lot different for the rest of the game.”
Instead of being able to relieve the pressure, Munster conceded the first points of the game to a Peter Horne penalty and were soon even further behind when, with a full complement on the field, Glasgow were able to engineer a try with Gibbins on the end of the move.
They went on to score two more tries and resist Munster’s second-half fightback with Gibbins vital to the home effort.
“Both sides used the wind well,” van Graan added. “We knew at half time that even though we were 22 points down we could come back into it. Execution was the problem, we had enough possession to score a few tries. All credit to their defence, it was very good.”
To add to his woes, not only did Munster lose the match but they also lost two key players in Billy Holland, the captain, and promising young scrum half Neil Cronin, who could be badly missed with Conor Murray’s immediate injury issues still uncertain.
“Any time you lose your captain, especially with all that experience, it is a big blow,” van Graan accepted. “Neil Cronin had a shoulder injury and it might be a bad one. He has been playing well so it is a blow for him.”
Ahead of next week’s clash with Ospreys, the South African added: ”I think you take out of it what you can. Start at zero on Monday and you play again next week and that’s a game that you want to go and win.”
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