MUNSTER CAPTAIN TADHG Beirne said responsibility for his side’s disastrous start away to Bath in the Champions Cup lay on his shoulders.
The Irish province were 28-0 down to Johann van Graan’s side after just 19 minutes at The Rec. Bath went on to win 40-14.
The Munster lineout started in damaging fashion as Bath picked off a series of throws and Beirne, who was calling the lineout, said he should have moved away from using seven-man set-ups earlier.
Bath were able to pile pressure onto Munster off the back of those lineout steals, leading to a maul penalty try and a yellow card for Beirne, with Bath scoring twice more while he was in the sin bin.
“Yeah, look, I’ll take that one on my shoulders,” said Beirne of the early lineout woes.
“I should have went away from the 7-man earlier. You know, we lost two in a row and then I went back to it again. I probably, in hindsight obviously, but that was just a silly error on my part going through it again.
“It would have been the smart decision to get away from it and we obviously lost it again, lost another one and then compounded that with a penalty down into the corner and then my yellow card was punished pretty severely when I was off the field.
“So yeah, look, it’s probably on my shoulders those first 20 minutes, unfortunately. I’ll have to get over that and move on for next week, but I thought the fight from that point when I came back on was probably more like the Munster we know.
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Munster leave Bath empty-handed. Dan Clohessy / INPHO
Dan Clohessy / INPHO / INPHO
“The lineout was still up and down at times. They defended it well and we just… the execution wasn’t there at times and then we got a hold of it for a while, but we’ll regroup and we’ll go again next week.”
Bath clearly came in with a plan to strongly challenge Munster at both the lineout and scrum, getting success in both areas.
They also had much the better of the aerial contests on a wet night at The Rec.
But those early lineout losses will rankle particularly for Beirne.
“I think just early on, it was so wet, they were smart in terms of how they defended us. We were just trying to take the easy ball towards the front and they were able to get a hand up because the ball was so slippy and get after it a bit.
“As I said, I should have went away from it. I thought we got control of the lineout after that for the most part. We had one lineout on the five-metre and they just sat into the zone that we said we were going to go after, so credit to them in terms of their defence.
“Just sometimes they get things right, that’s the way it goes, but we’ll bounce back and no doubt we’ll have it sorted next week.”
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan was frustrated with his side’s dire start against reigning Premiership champions Bath.
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
The southern province weren’t helped by losing starting forwards Jean Kleyn and Michael Milne in the lead-up, but McMillan was disgruntled with his side’s lack of accuracy.
“Disappointed, yeah, disappointed,” said McMillan of his feelings.
“We feel like we’re a better team than what we showed, especially in the first 15-20 minutes. Against a good quality side, you give them that sort of margin, it’s always going to be tough to come back.
“I think just our execution. And we probably created a little bit of early territory pressure, but weren’t able to leverage off that. We lost a few lineouts and that sort of let the pressure off and they were good enough to capitalise.”
Munster will now look to bounce back against Gloucester at Páirc Uí Chaoimh next weekend.
“Yeah, look, it’s kind of hard to be thinking about next week when you have the sort of disappointment that’s in the changing shed at the moment,” said McMillan.
“But there were positives. You know, that’s one of the top teams in Europe. We keep the scoreboard pretty even there for 60-odd minutes.
“We don’t want to pat ourselves on the back for that because it’s an 80-minute game, but there are some positives and we’ll need to find some gains pretty quickly at home next week.”
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'Those first 20 minutes are probably on my shoulders' - Beirne
MUNSTER CAPTAIN TADHG Beirne said responsibility for his side’s disastrous start away to Bath in the Champions Cup lay on his shoulders.
The Irish province were 28-0 down to Johann van Graan’s side after just 19 minutes at The Rec. Bath went on to win 40-14.
The Munster lineout started in damaging fashion as Bath picked off a series of throws and Beirne, who was calling the lineout, said he should have moved away from using seven-man set-ups earlier.
Bath were able to pile pressure onto Munster off the back of those lineout steals, leading to a maul penalty try and a yellow card for Beirne, with Bath scoring twice more while he was in the sin bin.
“Yeah, look, I’ll take that one on my shoulders,” said Beirne of the early lineout woes.
“I should have went away from the 7-man earlier. You know, we lost two in a row and then I went back to it again. I probably, in hindsight obviously, but that was just a silly error on my part going through it again.
“It would have been the smart decision to get away from it and we obviously lost it again, lost another one and then compounded that with a penalty down into the corner and then my yellow card was punished pretty severely when I was off the field.
“So yeah, look, it’s probably on my shoulders those first 20 minutes, unfortunately. I’ll have to get over that and move on for next week, but I thought the fight from that point when I came back on was probably more like the Munster we know.
“The lineout was still up and down at times. They defended it well and we just… the execution wasn’t there at times and then we got a hold of it for a while, but we’ll regroup and we’ll go again next week.”
Bath clearly came in with a plan to strongly challenge Munster at both the lineout and scrum, getting success in both areas.
They also had much the better of the aerial contests on a wet night at The Rec.
But those early lineout losses will rankle particularly for Beirne.
“I think just early on, it was so wet, they were smart in terms of how they defended us. We were just trying to take the easy ball towards the front and they were able to get a hand up because the ball was so slippy and get after it a bit.
“As I said, I should have went away from it. I thought we got control of the lineout after that for the most part. We had one lineout on the five-metre and they just sat into the zone that we said we were going to go after, so credit to them in terms of their defence.
“Just sometimes they get things right, that’s the way it goes, but we’ll bounce back and no doubt we’ll have it sorted next week.”
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan was frustrated with his side’s dire start against reigning Premiership champions Bath.
The southern province weren’t helped by losing starting forwards Jean Kleyn and Michael Milne in the lead-up, but McMillan was disgruntled with his side’s lack of accuracy.
“Disappointed, yeah, disappointed,” said McMillan of his feelings.
“We feel like we’re a better team than what we showed, especially in the first 15-20 minutes. Against a good quality side, you give them that sort of margin, it’s always going to be tough to come back.
“I think just our execution. And we probably created a little bit of early territory pressure, but weren’t able to leverage off that. We lost a few lineouts and that sort of let the pressure off and they were good enough to capitalise.”
Munster will now look to bounce back against Gloucester at Páirc Uí Chaoimh next weekend.
“Yeah, look, it’s kind of hard to be thinking about next week when you have the sort of disappointment that’s in the changing shed at the moment,” said McMillan.
“But there were positives. You know, that’s one of the top teams in Europe. We keep the scoreboard pretty even there for 60-odd minutes.
“We don’t want to pat ourselves on the back for that because it’s an 80-minute game, but there are some positives and we’ll need to find some gains pretty quickly at home next week.”
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