DURING THE HALF-TIME break at Thomond Park today recently retired pair Andrew Conway and Keith Earls spoke to the home crowd about their favourite memories in the red jersey. Both agreed that there’s something special about European nights at the home of Munster Rugby.
And that’s what made this evening’s 17-17 draw with Bayonne so disappointing for head coach Graham Rowntree. His team were heavy favourites heading into their Champions Cup opener but were frustrated by a determined Bayonne side. The French team deserved to leave Limerick with a famous result but Munster were left deflated after an oddly off-colour performance.
“Not happy. Scrapped out a draw there,” Rowntree said.
We had an opportunity there to perform better than we did in a special competition. Opening night, Thomond Park, 5.30pm on a Saturday and it just wasn’t a good enough version of us, that.
“And credit to them. They stuck in there, didn’t they? It was a dogfight at the end and we’re coming out with a draw. Second half in particular, third quarter, we had enough time and possession on their goal-line and they kept us out, one way or another, we’re doing reckless things, chucking the ball into touch.
“We’ll look at what we can do better in terms of being more composed in that area of the field. We knew they were going to have a strong power game, particularly around set-piece, we survived that early on.
“Then we’ll look to elements of our game that have just got to be better around set-piece and around time and possession in the score zone as we call it. On their tryline, we’ve just got to be better.”
The result puts Munster under some early pressure heading into a busy Christmas schedule. Next weekend they head to Sandy Park for a round two clash with Exeter, ahead of URC meetings with Leinster (home) and Connacht (away). In January, Munster close out their Champions Cup pool campaign with games against Toulon (away) and Northampton (home).
“In this pool it was always going to be tough,” Rowntree added.
“We’ve made life harder for ourselves. We’ll roll our sleeves up and go away next week.
“Luckily we’ve got some form going away in big games over the last year, and we’re going to have to delve into that composure and that form away from home next week for a huge game.”
