Ryan Bailey reports from Thomond Park
NEWS THAT GLASGOW had raced into an early two-try lead at Scotstoun quickly reduced the meaning and significance of this derby, so much so that the Thomond Park PA was announcing ticket details for Munster’s Pro14 quarter-final by half-time.
Munster’s hopes of bypassing next weekend and securing a home semi-final were dashed almost instantly on Saturday night, contributing to something of an anti-climatic affair against Connacht, even if the typical inter-pro bite remained.
Johann van Graan’s side, despite securing a three-try win, had to settle for second best behind Glasgow in Conference A again, and thus a longer, and altogether tougher, route to Pro14 glory.
A home quarter-final against Benetton this Saturday is far from the worst outcome but waiting in the semi-final for the winners are Leinster, a repeat of last year’s last-four showdown at the RDS now a very distinct possibility.
Munster again fell short of their target of a home semi, but van Graan was quick to point out his side’s progress over the course of the campaign.
“As far as I can remember, I think at this stage with four points tonight we got eight more league points than we did last season,” he said. “Last season I think we had 69 and if I’m not mistaken this time we’re in on 77, which is a huge positive from our side.
“Also last season we had 11 home games and 10 away games. This season we had 10 home games and 11 away games so a massive positive from our side.
“The next thing is I believe we have the best home record in the Pro14. I think we’ve 47 out of 50 points if I’m not mistaken, so a huge amount of positives. Obviously, if you look at how the pools panned out, I think Glasgow, if you combined the log, finished with the most points and we ended with the second-most points.
“So, look, at the end of the day, it comes down to three points over 21 rounds. I’d love to have a home semi-final and one or two results over the last few weeks didn’t go our way but first we look at ourselves and we’ve improved from last season in terms of the log. Fair play to Glasgow, out of the 21 rounds they’re three points ahead of us.
“Most importantly, we know what route we have to take now to get into a final and most importantly we’ve got to win a quarter-final, that’s against Treviso. Obviously, Leinster have qualified and if you want to go to a final you’ve got to go past them in Dublin. That’s way in the future, we’ll just give Benetton the respect they deserve.”
Munster know they’ll need to raise their performance for the play-offs. The scrum, despite being very close to first-choice, endured problems against Connacht’s reconfigured pack, with van Graan admitting it’s ‘something we’ve got to work on.’
First-half tries from Tadhg Beirne and Mike Haley set Munster on their way, but a 10-point half-time lead somewhat flattered the hosts, who started slowly and sloppily and initially fell behind to Finlay Bealham’s 23rd-minute score.
And then there was Andrew Conway’s inexcusable blunder — ‘not good enough,’ said van Graan — and a couple of second-half flashpoints, where Peter O’Mahony let his frustration spill over and may have been fortunate to avoid a yellow for flinging Eoin McKeon to the ground.
The Connacht back row then crossed to bring it back to a one-score game with 10 minutes left on the clock after the visitors had laid siege, only for Munster to move up a gear in their response through JJ Hanrahan.
“I think the mood was probably job done for us,” Niall Scannell said.
We got the win and that’s what we set out to do. You know, we kind of got over the disappointment of last week and I just feel that the first 20 minutes probably put us in a bit of a negative headspace, but if you look at where we finished, like I say it’s job done but we certainly aren’t overly pleased with how we started the game.
“But it showed a lot of character that we kept in it as well. I think we’ll take a lot out of that building into next week. There are certainly things to work on which is always good on a big week, to have specific focus points. So I think, not overly enthused with how we started the game, but we got our job done tonight, which is a testament to the lads.”
Van Graan added: “From our side through the season, some ebbs and flows, some very good performances, some average performances but very proud to come away with a home quarter-final. That’s what we deserved and now we’ve got to move forward.”
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